Eternal Struggle: Part II Reality and Illusion
by SpringThunder
Summary: Rinoa/Squall - A knight has fallen, leaving his beautiful angel to care for their child alone. An evil king, thought to be dead, reawakens for revenge. The world needs their fallen savior, but the question is, can he come to the rescue.
1. Prologue: Reoccurance

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Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 8 or its characters. They are ALL copyrighted by Squaresoft. ALL the chapters in this fic follow the same disclaimer!!!! I just own my created characters.

Part II – Reality and Illusion

Prologue - Reoccurrence

She watched him with translucent brown eyes. Every move he made against the enemy was perfect to the point of serenity. He flowed like water, gentle one moment, and the next he was raging with intense ferocity because of the slightest thing that disturbed him. His feet moved like a butterfly and his attacks surely looked like it stung as a bee, however, she would never know.

She watched as two shining blades came into contact suddenly with a force that could blow down the fiercest of fires. As a result of the contact made by the two blades, there created a brilliant light that could blind people within seconds. However, she kept looking on. No power in the world could ever restrict her from gazing onto him and his perfect features. 

The blades struck against each other one more time. This time, a dark aura emitted from the contact, sending terrifying chills down her spine, and throughout her whole body for that matter. Nevertheless, she kept on watching the battle, as if this was going to be the last time she was to lay her eyes upon the man she wanted to protect from harm. 

The two crystalline blades, each a different color that was part of the rainbow came down together in a loud clash once again. This time however, she gasped as something unexpected happened to the one she wouldn't turn her gaze away from. 

One of the blades shattered into a million pieces right in front of her eyes. She wanted to break down and cry at that moment, but her body would not react. Her gaze was still kept on the warrior whose blade received the most unfortunate outcome. She tried to pry her eyes away, but found herself to be glued upon the creature in front of her. 

Before long, time itself stopped. Her breaths quickened to a very high pace as she felt her heart beat and could have sworn it would rip out of her chest at any moment. However, the warrior whose blade received the unfortunate end turned his gaze towards her. For some reason, time had no effect upon him, as he was able to freely move and dart his eyes from place to place. 

Part of her deeply wished he would not notice her – she did not want to be the reason for his defeat. But there was also the part that "desperately" wanted him to notice her, stare at her, smile at her, touch her and possible even embrace her. At this thought, she felt her heart flutter dramatically as she noticed she was being watched.

There he was – the fallen knight – piercing into her shattered soul like knife slicing through warm butter. She couldn't help but to stare back, stare back at something she had fallen in love with so long ago. She dared not to blink her eyes, for the fear that the fallen knight would disappear from her sight that was embedded in her mind.

She tried to open her mouth, in an attempt to maybe, possible, utter some sort of sound to tell the warrior that she cared, and she longed. Unfortunately, nothing clear had registered in her mind and therefore, not one sound came out from deep within. All she was able to do was stare. 

Studying him intently, she noticed the look of forgiveness, innocence, fear, and anxiety in his eyes. This only told her body to shiver more – in fear – she did not know. However, she desperately did not want him to she her shiver – to think her weak so he would have to protect her consistently, and even in a more drastic measure, give up his life for her. That was the last thing she wanted him to gather from her.

Reluctantly, she broke away from his eyes and found herself gazing upon the shattered pieces of a once exquisite blade that was held by the fallen knight. She remembered how gracefully he was using it to defend himself and attack the second warrior only moments before. Somehow though, the second warrior had mysteriously disappeared, but that was the last thing in her mind. She could of swore she felt a tear forming in her light brown orbs as she gazed upon the shattered blade, but could not reassure if it was a tear or not – for she found her body still not responding to her brain's commands. 

Quickly moving her eyes away from the symbolic legendary blade, she once again found herself locked into his alluring gaze, and finally, she uttered a sound – a surprised gasp. She mentally chastised herself for not noticing it before, but his eyes – they were HIM. Those same cloudy, ice colored, baby blue eyes she used to gaze into every day of her new life, were now in front of her, staring right back. 

Instantaneously, she finally broke. The held back crystalline tears were now flowing endlessly upon her angelic countenance. And she did the only thing that actually made sense to her – she ran; she ran towards him as fast as her little feet would let her. She had no clue how long, or how far she was running. The only objective in her mind was to reach him before he disappeared once again.

Every second felt like an eternity as she tried desperately to ignore the fatigue that was inevitably bearing over her. 

After what seemed like forever, she had reached her destination and had finally caught up to the fallen knight. Hesitantly, she extended her right arm, her left clutching at her necklace that held two silver rings. She was only centimeters away from her goal. Her heart started to jump for joy, but her mind told her to keep going. 

Then it happened. The fallen knight quickly turned towards her with eyes that, for the first time she had ever known, holding back the same crystalline tears she had spilt just moments ago. And without any warning, any kind of sign, or any explanation whatsoever, he just vanished – leaving just three simple words that he always left. Once, long ago, she would have died to hear those words, but now, she dreaded the very existence of them.

"_I love you_."


	2. Little Lioness

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Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 8 or its characters. They are ALL copyrighted by Squaresoft. ALL the chapters in this fic follow the same disclaimer!!!! I just own my created characters.

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Chapter 1 – Little Lioness

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Rinoa woke up with a jolt from her nightly slumber. It had happened once again. For the past several weeks, sleep had been a blessing for her, if she had gotten any at all. It was always because of that dream.

The dream she looked forward to and dreaded at the same time. She wanted so badly to see his gorgeous face once again; to lock eyes with his breathtaking stare. But at the same time, she knew it wouldn't last, for he would always vanish from her sight, leaving those words she had grown to love and hate all at once. She just did not want to hear them anymore, but actually see him as well. 

"Get a hold of yourself Rinoa. It's been over two years since it happened. Face reality, he's NOT coming back." her mind would always tell her. 

"He promised me. He's coming back to me, because I need him." was always the reply from her heart. 

Taking the blanket, she slowly wiped the apprehension that had appeared on her face, away and took a glance at the bright clock.

"Three-o-clock in the morning. Just great! Now I'm not going to get any sleep tonight." Despite the fact, Rinoa tried to force sleep upon herself, but only to find the attempt to prove fruitless. Putting her hand to her forehead, just like her love would have done whenever something annoyed him, she finally admitted to herself sleep was not arriving and rose out bed. 

By now, she had gotten used to her new dorm room at Balamb Garden and did not need to have the lights on in order to navigate the area. Slowly but safely, Rinoa found her way to the bathroom in the mediocre sized dormitory and quickly turned on the light. Her pupils dilated instantly as they struggled to become adjusted to the new source of bright light.

After a minute of just standing there, her eyes finally adjusted to the brightness, so she walked up to the sink. Turning on the water, she found it to be quite cold, so let it run for a couple of minutes on the warm end of the knob. In the meantime, Rinoa took this time to study herself in the mirror – something she hadn't done for Hyne knew how long.

What she saw was a beautiful nineteen-year old woman that still held all the fruits of her beauty. Her skin was a nice shade of cream white as loosely, raven colored hair fell a bit beyond her shoulders. She also noticed that instead of her "cutesy-child" like charm she once had a few years ago, was replaced by a beautiful woman façade, however, still retaining a hint of child-like look. The only imperfection she could notice were the slight dark circles around her mystic brown eyes, signaling a lost of sleep.

Feeling the water once again, Rinoa still found it to be quite cold. Shrugging, she splashed some water onto her face before drying herself off with the nearby towel.

Exiting the bathroom rather slowly, Rinoa grabbed her baby blue cotton sweater and buttoned it on, leaving the last few buttons, unbuttoned. She made her way to the balcony that was part of her dorm and entered it. Closing her eyes, she happily let the light breeze hit her on the face as she enjoyed the perfect weather present at that time of year.

Sighing sadly, Rinoa leaned against the railing at looked up upon the stars. "They are glowing brightly tonight." she murmured as she found herself gazing to the new source of light situated in the dark sky. 

The animals could clearly tell the difference. They knew all too well that it was a replica. Still, Rinoa had previously doubted that scientists would actually accomplish the feat of replicating the moon and its cycles around the world. So when they successfully completed the experiment, Rinoa was totally shocked. Nevertheless, it would never replace the real one.

  
Finally finding herself yawning, Rinoa returned to her untidy bed and fell onto it, eventually drifting off to sleep, with no doubt in her mind that **the dream** would most likely show itself again.

-----*****-----

"What do you mean you don't serve hotdogs at this hour?!" a young man of age twenty yelled out.

"I'm sorry, the hotdogs are only served during lunch and dinner hours. I'm terribly sorry." was the reply heard.

Zell slouched in rejection as he casually looked upon the menu in the cafeteria. "Tch, fine! I guess that I'll have the bacon and eggs then." After receiving a nod from the cook, he slowly walked over to the table where his friends awaited him.

"You know! I still do NOT believe they are not selling hotdogs during breakfast hours. It's ridiculous I tell you!" Zell stammered as he slammed his fist onto the table, rattling the food laid upon it.

"Zell! Chill out! Eating hotdogs every hour of the day is not good for you." Quistis replied dryly as she took another bite out of her waffles. "Before you know it, you might just get a heart attack from eating too many."

"She's right, you know." Selphie added. Irvine tirelessly put her arm around Selphie as he nodded in agreement at Zell.

Before anyone knew it, Irvine was decked to the ground. Everyone in the room turned their attention towards the two in amusement. "Irvine, how many times do I have to tell you – it's NO!" The crowd returned their attention to whatever they were doing, since the quarrel between the two lovebirds had been a regular event lately.

"C'mon Sefie………pleeeeeasssse?" Irvine begged as he clapped his hands together, as if he was begging for mercy.

Selphie merely rolled her eyes and tried to stifle the smile that was forming on her lips. As much as she hated the cowboy, there was a side of her that just loved him. "We'll see Irvy………we'll see."

At this Irvine smiled while he found his way back to his chair next to Selphie. This time, he didn't dare touch the girl. _'Better not push my luck.'_ he silently thought to himself.

Zell rolled his eyes as well as he watched the antics between Selphie and Zell. "Yeah, whatever. I think I'll take my chances with my beloved hotdogs." he stated rather dreamily.

Now it was Quistis turn to roll her eyes at Zell's pathetic love for hotdogs. "I suppose it's your health Zell. Just don't expect me to pull a rescue when you start choking on your hotdogs."

Zell gave a low growl at her as he went to pick up his food from the counter.

As Zell went to get his food, Rinoa walked into the cafeteria at the same moment. With her head hung low and her arms loosely at her side, she wearily took a seat with her friends at their usual table located at the back of the room. To anyone else, Rinoa could be seen as a girl who just didn't get enough sleep last night. She would usually cover up her emotions by putting on a cheerful smile, but to her four best friends – Irvine, Selphie, Quistis and Zell – they all knew the real reason. 

"That dream again?" Selphie asked in a low whisper.

Rinoa nodded slowly as she meekly played with her food that Irvine graciously had gotten for her. A low sigh could be heard out of Rinoa as she slowly took bits out of the cold toast and cereal. "I just don't know what to do anymore. I'm afraid to go to sleep. Its just……it feels like I've let him down."

Selphie furiously shook her head. "No you didn't Rinny. He just wanted you safe." Selphie hesitated before she continued. "He would NOT want you to live your life like this, after all he's done to make sure your safe. Am I right?"

Rinoa shrugged at the question as she took another bite out of her food. "I suppose so, but still, I just can't shake this feeling he's still alive."

Quistis grabbed Rinoa's hand, and at this, the young angel looked up at her. "Look Rinoa. We all loved him. But you have to face the facts. You have to understand that what I'm about to say is for your own good." Taking a deep breath, "He's gone. We all must move on. It's almost been three years, and your still living in the past. And plus, you have another life that completely relies upon you now." she stated in a matter-of-factly tone of voice. 

By this, Rinoa started to get a bit angry, but quickly calmed herself down before she made any rash actions. _'Quistis is right. I shouldn't dwell on the past. And if I do, I'm just going to remember the good events about him.'_ she silently rationalized in her mind. "Yeah, your right Quistis……" she regrettably accepted. "But! He stole a piece of my heart when he went, and without him, I will never be complete again."

The rest of them hesitated nervously at Rinoa's sudden outburst. They all knew the two shared a strong bond, but nevertheless, they also hoped that Rinoa would hopefully stop living in the past, and start anew again.

Changing the subject, "Speaking of which, where is my favorite little angel anyway?" Irvine asked. Selphie, however, playfully hit Irvine in his arm. 

"Hey, I thought you said I was your favorite little angel!?"

The cowboy thought about it for a minute. "Umm……sorry Selph. You're in second place now." he replied, grinning from ear to ear. 

Selphie put on a fake angry look as she again, playfully hit Irvine in the gut. "You better not push your luck with me, mister!" Irvine rolled his eyes, muttering something under his breath about not having any luck to begin with. 

Selphie eyed him accusingly. "What was that?" 

"Uh, your gorgeous." the cowboy answered quickly.

"I see………"

  
Rinoa smiled a little. "Anyway, she's with Edea and Cid right now. I was hoping to get some sleep last night so they volunteered to baby-sit. But here I am, still tired as hell."

"Have you tried casting a Sleep spell on yourself." Zell asked as he finally returned with his food, taking a seat at the table. 

She nodded. "Hey Zell, and yes, I've tried that countless numbers of times. It doesn't work – at least with me anyway."

"Well then, I'm all out of ideas." he replied back with a mouthful of food.

The rest of them just rolled their eyes at Zell's lack of intelligence and quietly ate their breakfast for the remainder of the hour – with altercations every now and then between Selphie and Irvine.

As the five of them were finishing up their meals, a cute squeal could be heard from the distance. Almost immediately, Rinoa turned around, and in open arms, welcomed a small, two-year old child into her embrace.

  
"Did you have fun last night?"

The spunky child nodded her head vigorously. "Yep mommy. Uncy Cid was boooring, but Auntie Edea was sooo much fun!"

Quistis, Irvine, Selphie and Zell looked over at the two with bright smiles on their faces. It still astonished them at how much the little child knew, despite her very young age. At the age of one, she had started to walk and before all of them knew it, she was talking sweet conversations with all of them. But what shocked them the most was how much the little child resembled her parents. Her shining raven hair, with the same blond highlights as her mother, flowed down almost to the top of her shoulders. Her creamy white baby skin could be compared very easily to her mother too. She simply wore a baby blue shirt with a small, black skirt that would go past her knees. She was already reaching two and a half feet in height as well. However, her most stunning features were her eyes – those same icy, blue eyes – that resembled **him** so much.

Edea shortly after, walked in and after a minute of looking around, finally spotted the group of five. "Greetings, my children." she waved as she took the final available chair at the table next to Rinoa, which was usually taken up by someone from the past.

"I hope she didn't cause you too much trouble." the mother asked. "She can be very mischievous at times."

"Not at all Rinoa. Actually, it was fun to have children her age around again. It was, well, very entertaining." the elderly woman replied with a laugh. 

"Yeppers! And guess what?! Never mind, I'll tell you. Edea gave me something-super cool. Wanna see? Huh huh? Wanna?" the small child asked, rather excitedly. 

"Sure, show us what you got?" Irvine asked in an eager tone as he leaned in, followed by Selphie, Quistis, and finally Zell.

The girl sitting in Rinoa's lap pulled something out of her pocket and held it within her palm in a fist, so no one could see.

"Well, hurry up. I wanna see!" Selphie squealed out rather childishly, which caused a few stares from nearby students.

"TADA!" she said as she opened her hand, revealing a ring. Rinoa caught a glimpse of the small metallic band in her daughter's hand, and realized exactly what it was. She quickly turned to Edea, giving her a look that she didn't have to do that. Edea, however smiled, and waved her arm, signaling it was no big deal. 

"She has to know sometime, my child." was all she said.

Rinoa hesitantly agreed as she unknowingly reached up for one of her rings clasped in her necklace. 

Zell carefully studied the ring in the child's hand. Still not believing his eyes, he slowly took it out of her hand to study it more closely. Selphie was peering in from his right while Quistis from his left. At the exact same time, their eyes went wide in shock as they realized exactly what it resembled. 

"Gimme back, gimme back!" Rinoa's daughter wailed as she desperately tried to snatch it back from Zell's hand. The martial artist reluctantly tossed it back to the child as she greedily snatched it from the table. "Its miiiiiiine" she emphasized.

"Here, let me put the ring on your necklace, so you won't lose it." her mother uttered out as she unhooked the small necklace around the girl's neck, looping it into the ring. _'Yep, it's exactly what I thought.'_ she reassured in her mind.

"Aunty Edea………do you know what this thing is on the ring?" the child asked curiously, toying with it about her fingers. "Looks like some kind of a-ni-mal."

"I'm pretty sure your mother could tell you, little child." 

The child hopefully looked up upon her mother. "Mommy, do you knooow?"

Rinoa smiled warmly, for the first time in weeks, at the child as she brushed away strands of hair that fell over the lovely girl's face. "How about I'll tell you what it means on your birthday, got that?"

The girl pouted at first, but then celebrated. "Kay mommy. An-y-waaay, my birthday is only a little while longer! So I get to know soon." she sung out.

The others smiled, and quickly shook off the surprised look still retained on their faces as they gradually cleaned up the table. Selphie looked over at Rinoa, and could easily tell she was still pretty depressed.

"Hey Rinny! The guys and I are going to Balamb for some shopping. You wanna come?" Selphie asked.

"I don't know Selph………"

"OH come on Rinny! You always say that. This time, I'm am **not** taking no for an answer. You need some time off away from this place." the bouncy girl reprimanded.

Rinoa still was not in the mood, but as she glanced down to her daughter, her spirits became slightly lifted as the girl was looking up hopefully to her mother. "Pweease Mommy!"

She had no other choice. "Oh, ok Selph. Count me in. Just let me get my purse."

  
"YAY!" the brunette wailed as she pumped her fists into the air in victory. "It's about time you went on a major shopping spree, teehee. Here, let me take this little angel off of your lap so you can run to your dorm room and get ready." Selphie spun the child in the air playfully as she headed for the front gates. "Meet you there Rinoa."

"Yeah! Meet you there mommy!"

The mother gave out an exasperated sigh as she waved to her daughter and retreated back to her dorm room. 

The trip to her room was a lonely one. She passed many couples in the halls and waved to them happily, hiding her true feelings from them. Reaching her room, she slid in her door key and entered the two-room dormitory, not including the bathroom. All normal dorms had only one room, but however, Rinoa was an exception, considering she was the only female in the whole Garden with a child. 

Wasting no time, she quickly grabbed her purse and started to walk out of the room, when something caught her eye. She looked at it as if it was never there before, when in reality, it was there everyday she walked into this room. Only this time, the early sun was glimmering onto it, so it stood out clearly. 

Hesitantly, she walked over to it and slowly picked it up. It was the ring: the ring which **he** used to propose to her, in his own peculiar way though. She examined it closely one more time, looking at it from different angles. She always managed to find something new every time she looked at it. This time, however, seemed to be the exception. Furiously, she started to stuff the ring into her dresser when something she saw something odd. Under the crest of the ring, stood a carving. Rinoa could barely read it out, but when she did, her heart skipped a beat.

"_I love you_."

Rinoa threw the ring into the dresser immediately, smashing it shut, grabbed her purse and exited the room all too quickly. 

"I have other things to worry about, like Kari."


	3. Mystery Men

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Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 8 or its characters. They are ALL copyrighted by Squaresoft. ALL the chapters in this fic follow the same disclaimer!!!! I just own my created characters.

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Chapter 2 – Mystery Men

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"Rinoa, you just HAVE to try on this one!"

"I don't know Selphie. Don't you think that's just a little too bright of a color?" 

"Rinoa, NO! And look here. There is an exact replica that seems to fit Kari just perfectly. You two would make such a stunning pair. No **go**! That's an order. Teehee."

"Ok ok Selphie. Your wish is my command." Rinoa reluctantly took the bright blue dress from Selphie's grip and Kari to the dressing room.

Quistis smiled as she shook her head. "Hey Selph, don't you think that was a little too harsh on her?"

Selphie vigorously shook her head. "No way Quisty. Someone has to get her out of that depressed mood she's in, and I'm taking it upon my shoulders to do so." Looking through the rack of clothes, Selphie found a crimson red dress. "Ohhh Quisty, look what I fooound."

The instructor admired the dress approvingly when Selphie shoved it into her hands. "Now you go and try that on as well."

Knowing better than to get on her "evil" side, Quistis grudgingly walked over to where Rinoa was and entered the neighboring stall. She heard Kari whining, telling her she did not want to put on that dress. Smiling, Quistis started to put on the dress that her friend picked out for her. 

"I'm waaaaiiiiitttinggg you girls!" the spunky brunette called out as she tapped her foot against the floor impatiently. 

Quistis was the first one out, and to Selphie, she looked stunning. The instructor's hair was piled up in a bun at the top of her head. Her one-piece dress clearly showed every curve on the girl's body as it stopped short of her knees. Quistis was ready to rip the dress into shreds but after a heated argument, Selphie finally managed to get Quistis to buy the dress. 

Another five minutes passed before Rinoa and Kari came out, wearing their regular attire. 

"HEY! I wanted to see you two wearing the clothes I picked out for you girls."

"Relax Selphie. I liked how it looked, so I'm buying it anyway." Rinoa replied, trying to calm the girl down.

Selphie slouched a little, but accepted the answer. "Well ok, but the next time the Garden is going to have a party, you **better** wear that dress. That goes the same for you Kari."

"Yes Selphie, we got it." 

"Mommy……can I go to the toys store now? Pweeaasse!" Kari asked. "I hate putting on clothes."

Rinoa sighed as she looked around. Selphie was busy looking for more attire while Quistis was paying for her merchandise. Zell was to be seen outside the store eating hotdogs, while Irvine was just sitting on the bench, holding a huge stack of clothes, mostly Selphie's. "Sure honey. Just make sure you take Zell or Irvine, and I'll meet you there when I buy these clothes."

Almost immediately Kari bolted out of the store in search of Irvine or Zell. Rinoa sighed again as she walked up to the counter, and kept her gaze upon Kari until she reached one of her friends. She saw Kari jump onto Irvine's lap as they wrestled. After a minute, Irvine seemed to have given up as he and Zell walked off into the direction of the toy store, leaving all of Selphie's merchandise unguarded.

Unknowingly to herself, Rinoa let out a small giggle but quickly caught herself. _'I'm not supposed to do that. Not without **him** anyway.'_ Changing her mood almost instantly, Rinoa got in line.

-----*****-----

Kari skipped into the toy store as Zell and Irvine followed. "At least we're away from those girls." Irvine whispered to Zell as he finished up his fifth hotdog.

"Don't be too relaxed. I hear this little rascal can be very commanding at times too." he said as he pointed over to Kari.

"Are you guys coming or what!" the two year old child commanded rather than asked.

"Yes ma'am!" they said as they saluted with a grin on their face. 

"Told you so." Zell whispered once again and only received a slap on the head from his friend.

The three of them walked around the toy store a couple of times before something caught Kari's eye. Closing the gap to the toy slowly, she picked up the item and examined it closely. "Unca Irvy, do you know what this is?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." The cowboy took the toy out of the child's hands as he swung it a couple of times. "I'm actually not surprised that they make this thing. After all, it is pretty famous nowadays." 

  
Zell nodded in agreement as Kari's patience was being tested. "What isss itttt!?"

"A gunblade." 

"A gum….ball?"

Irvine chuckled as he handed the plastic toy into the child's hands. "No, a _gun-blade_. It's a type of sword that is really hard to use. Only a few people actually know how to use that thing well. But this one is a fake. The real ones are actually pretty heavy to hold, and that's part of the reason they are hard to use."

Kari nodded as she looked upon the sword in awe for a full two minutes. "I want one!"

Irvine and Zell stepped back in shock but quickly regained their composure before Kari had noticed. They both looked at each other in puzzlement, not wanting to answer her. "Rinoa will **kill** us if we get her this."

The cowboy nodded his head when an idea popped into his mind. Taking the toy out of the child's hands, he placed it back onto the shelf. Risking a look at Kari, he was met with a stare that could kill if it wanted to. Gulping, "Your birthday is in a week, soooo you never know what you might get."

At this, the child's spirits lifted dramatically as she walked around the store, followed by her two bodyguards. 

  
"Your not really going to get that for her, are you?" Zell asked.

Irvine shrugged.

-----*****-----

Rinoa and Quistis finally finished purchasing the clothes that Selphie got for the pair. Walking out of the store, they saw their spunky little friend sitting on the bench, looking quite furious for some reason. "What's wrong Selphie?" an exhausted Quistis asked.

"Irvine ran off!" she exclaimed.

"Oh, I believe that may be my fault Selph. I told Kari to take him and Zell with her to the toy store. I'm sorry." Rinoa explained with a sincere voice.

Selphie smiled. "No need to apologize Rinny. I'm just more worried about whose going to carry all of my stuff here." 

Rinoa and Quistis both shook their heads in disbelief as all three girls broke out into a small laughter. Finally finding a small table in the shade, the three of them took a seat and waited for their friends' return. In the meantime, Rinoa took a glance around town. Balamb town had really turned from a small, rural community, into a prodigious bustling shopping center. Almost all the new stores were there, even topping Deling City. However, Esthar still retained the number one place it that category. 

A couple of minutes passed before Kari, Irvine and Zell emerged out of the toy store, with Kari looking peculiarly happy as she jumped into her mother's lap. Rinoa accusingly eyed the two men, who seemed to be hiding something, but didn't pursue an interrogation into the matter. "So Kari, have fun?"

"Yep yep, mommy. I can't wait till my birthdaaay!!!"

"Is that sooo……" Rinoa replied as she gave another accusing stare to the two men, who quickly found interest in the sky. Sighing, Rinoa was about to say something when flocks of people started to run towards the docks. 

"Hey, what in the world is happening?" Selphie asked everyone.

"Beats me Sefie, but let's find out." her boyfriend answered as he ran with the people. 

The six of them – Quistis, Irvine, Selphie, Zell, Rinoa and Kari – headed towards the congregation of people, which were at the docks. It had been awhile since Rinoa had last came here, but nevertheless, the sea always proved to be a terrific healer, both physically and mentally. Kari quickly brought Rinoa out of her reverie as she struggled to see what was happening from her mother's grip. Almost reluctantly, Rinoa tore her gaze away from the river as she struggled to squeeze in between people to get to the front of the action. When she finally reached the others, she became as shocked as all her friends. _'He's here?!'_

Two gunblades were clashing against each other – one silver in coloring, the other a rose red. Each fighter beautifully defended and attacked their respective opponent for a full five minutes. However, more surprising was the fact that one of the fighters was Seifer Almasy himself. 

The last thing they had heard about Seifer was that he was readmitted to a garden, Galbadia Garden to be exact, to continue his studies and the more important goal of becoming a SeeD fighter. 

  
Rinoa looked upon Seifer's features, and found them to be quite the same as she did three years ago. He still had the same, blond spiked haircut that came hand in hand with the arrogant look on his face he always wore. His eyes retained the clear, light blue color. His clothing attire seemed to be no different, as his white trenchcoat went to his knees, unbuttoned. His scar, probably his most outstanding feature, was exactly the opposite of **his**. It went in the opposite direction, and was a bit darker too.

The other person taking part in the fight looked strangely peculiar, yet at the same time, Rinoa never saw him in her entire life before. His jet-black hair was ruffled up, but was held in a rough ponytail, that went a little short of Irvine's. He wore a plain red sweatshirt that had a hood, covered up by an unzipped, navy blue, sleeveless jacket. He wore simple black jeans and black boots. Rinoa could spot no jewelry on him, and could not get a good look at his face because his hood was covering his face almost totally. However, it seemed his skin was a bit more tanned than Seifer's. 

The fight raged on for what seemed like forever. Both warriors exchanged the offense and defense positions every now and then, and both warriors were starting to show signs of fatigue. As to why exactly they were fighting, that was still a complete mystery. 

"Mommy……" Kari began as she pulled on her mother's skirt. "……do you know those peoples?"

However, Kari's question went onto deaf ears, as her mother was strangely engrossed completely in the fight, as were all her friends and the rest of the audience. 

Finally, the mysterious man made a mistake. To Rinoa, it seemed as if that man wanted to get the fight over with, and came onto Seifer with an attack that was meant to kill. Coming in with a huge stab, the mystery man aimed for Seifer's chest. Seifer had obviously seen this coming as he quickly parried the opponent's gunblade and knocked it out of his hands and into the water. Seifer then held his weapon at the man's throat as he sneered arrogantly at him. 

"That's why you DO NOT mess with my friends!"

The mystery man quickly nodded his head in fear, and with that Seifer tossed him to the side. The man went to retrieve his gunblade, which was strangely floating in the water, and ran off towards the exit of the town. Seifer then looked around and saw the crowd that was formed. "Well, what the hell are you guys staring at. You can leave, like NOW!"

The gathering of people quickly dispersed to their own activities, with the exception of the SeeDs, Rinoa, and Kari. Seifer finally noticed the six of them, smiled devilishly before walking over to them.

"Well, long time no see people. Chicken Wuss, instructor, cowboy, messenger girl, Rinoa, and………I'm afraid I don't know who the little runt……" 

"Kari!" the little girl said in a hint of anger as she already began to form a dislike to this guy. "And don't forget itttt!"

Zell, however, was ready to pounce at Seifer, and would have accomplished his task if it were not for Irvine and Selphie holding him back. "Just let me at him." he hissed.

The two just rolled their eyes. Obviously, Zell still couldn't control himself around Seifer as the others learned to do so.

Quistis walked over to the swordsmen, and with a gasp from everyone, smacked Seifer on the back of his head. 

"Oww! What the hell was that for!"

"What were you doing this time?" she asked in a dry tone, as if this was already a regular thing for her to ask.

"What? Can't a guy enjoy a drink sometime………" However, he was cut off.

"The fight Seifer! Why the hell were you fighting?!" Quistis's tone became surprisingly angrier. "Were you trying to give SeeD a bad name?!"

Seifer narrowed his eyes at her. _'How the hell did she know I was a SeeD? Do all of them know? Whatever…'_ He stood upright as he sheathed his gunblade, "Well, not like it's any of your business, but when you mess with my friends, you mess with me!" Just then, both Fujin and Raijin came hobbling over.

"Yo Seifer. C'mon, we gotta be going now. The garden has called us back, ya." Raijin said.

"AFFIRMATIVE." Fujin claimed as they ran off towards a boat.

Seifer gave them a lazy wave with his hand, telling them he got the message. Raijin and Fujin then went off towards the Galbadian boat that could be seen in the distance. Seifer took one last look at the six of them, especially Kari. For some reason, he could not pry himself away from her eyes – the fact that they reminded so much of **him.** "Well, I guess I'll be seeing the loser group later." With that, he walked in the direction where his friends just left a moment ago.

"What the hell does me mean he'll be seeing us later?" Zell exclaimed in fury. "We see him today, for the first time in what, three freakin' years, and now he'll be seeing us _later_!? The freakin' nerve of that guy!! Augh! I just want to hammer him!"

Rinoa merely nodded, but really was not paying attention to what Zell was actually saying. She was more interested in something else. _'Who in the world was that other guy? And why does he look familiar. I know I have never met him, but there is just something about him………'_

Kari once again pulled on her mother's skirt, disrupting her train of thought. "Mommy, I'm tired……can we go home?"

The mother smiled as she picked up her child into her arms. "Sure honey. I'm tired too. Let's go."

"Hey Quistis, how did you know that Seifer became a SeeD?" Selphie asked. "I mean, I even didn't know that."

Quistis paused. "I…I…I overheard Headmaster Cid talking to the Galbadian Garden headmaster. They were saying something about Seifer becoming a SeeD and all." she stammered out.

Selphie nodded her head approvingly, however Zell and Irvine eyed their friend peculiarly, not exactly buying the story completely. 

"Hey guys. Do you mind if we head back to the garden? Kari here is feeling a bit tired, and as a matter of fact, I'm feeling a bit exhausted myself." Rinoa asked.

"Yeah, we should. I was about to suggest that myself." Zell added, as his friends gave him a strange look. Zell looked around. "I was!"

  
"Whatever Zell." both Quistis and Selphie replied at the same time, and broke out into a giggle.

"Augh! The respect I receive!" Zell yelled into the air as he quickly walked away. 

Quistis, Selphie and Irvine followed shortly after. Rinoa took one look back at the direction the mysterious man ran off too, before following the others. Kari had already fallen asleep in her arms. Looking up to the sky, she noticed it was already getting dark. "It's about your bedtime anyway, baby."

-----*****-----

A lone figure trudged himself through the forest. After resting at the fire cavern earlier that day, he was partially refreshed to continue his journey, but the forest in the way was definitely taking a huge toll on the person. After easily killing off a number of wild grats and caterpillar type monsters, the figure finally saw what he was looking for – Balamb Garden. Smiling a smile of relief, he began taking the last leg of his journey when a huge T-Rex-a-saur monster came out of nowhere.

He was already dead tired, but he so desperately wanted to reach his destination. With a new surge of energy, he found himself gripping the hilt of his weapon as he ran towards the monster. The T-Rex gave a huge roar as it charged its prey as well. 

When the smoke finally cleared away, what was left was the dead carcass of the monster, and the figure was only to be seen with a small scar on his left arm, ripping his favorite jacket. But that was the last of his worries. 

Making sure his enemy was dead, the figure marched his way towards the garden, but quickly hid behind a bush when a car was seen heading towards the school. The figure tried to see who inhabited the automobile, but thanks to the darkness, he could not see a thing. The car then rolled, what was most likely, into the garden's parking lot.

The figure stood his ground for ten minutes, making sure that there was nobody else in the perimeter. He did NOT want to be seen – the last thing he wanted was to start a commotion. 

Walking stealthily towards the school, the figure thought about his past. He had gone through a lot in the last couple of years, and the worse part was that he had to go through most of it alone. It was like living in Hell for a couple of years, and then being readmitted to life. 

Finally, the figure reached the entrance of the garden. _'Going through the front gates would surely be risky.'_ he thought. Luckily for him, he had seen the blueprints of exactly how the huge, flying structure was made, so he knew every nook and cranny of the military academy school. Smiling to himself, he ran around the garden, quickly but patiently, hiding behind bushes every now and then just to make sure no one saw him, till he reached a small opening that would lead _exactly _where he wanted to go.

Looking around, the figure quietly crawled into the opening that he found. It had been only a couple of minutes till he reached the end of the small tunnel; a vent covered the exit. After hearing not one sound from the other side, the figure quietly unscrewed the thing and exited. Screwing the vent back on quickly, he made his way to his ultimate destination, which was only a few yards away from the small tunnel he had just crawled out of. 

Sighing in relief, he quickly slid a card key into the hole, and the automatic door gave a small beep, signaling it was unlocked. Surprised that his key still worked, the figure quickly entered the room, and shut the door just as fast, making sure it was locked securely. 

He looked around. For some odd reason, everything was exactly the way he remembered it. Nothing had been touched. The only difference was that there was some dust here and there. Shrugging, he made his way to the bed in the corner of the room and fell face first into its soft embrace.

****

"I still don't know why you want to keep it a secret. I mean, its all……" a voice, coming from all around him, began in a whisper, before being cut off.

"Just shut the hell up Bahamut and let me sleep."

****

Author's Notes: Sorry about the first part of this story being kind of depressing without Squall, but thanks for being patient with me. I just had to include a chapter or two without Squall - to describe life without him. So, that's probably my reason. But anyway, it seems most of you will be getting your wish for him coming back. 

And as always, I thank all of my reviewers - you guys helped me a lot. So I hope you are all enjoying this story as much as I do in writing it. 


	4. Blast from the Past

****

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 8 or its characters. They are ALL copyrighted by Squaresoft. ALL the chapters in this fic follow the same disclaimer!!!! I just own my created characters.

*****************************

Chapter 3 – Blast from the Past

***************************** 

"Bye guys. See you tomorrow!" Rinoa said, carrying Kari in her arms.

Zell and Irvine went their separate way from the girls as they headed towards the men's side of the dormitory. 

"Man, I'm am beat." Zell yawned as they slowly walked their way towards their rooms.

Irvine nodded. "Yeah, tell me about it. Never knew girls could be so………"

"Exhausting and a pain in the ass?" Zell finished.

"Exactly!" Irvine agreed as they walked passed the once dorm room that belonged to an ex-commander. As they walked by, Zell suddenly stopped and stared directly at the door. _'Is that…………snoring?'_ he silently asked himself as he began to inch towards the door. 

  
"C'mon knucklehead. I think your fatigue is giving you illusions of some sort. There is **nothing** in _that_ direction." Irvine stated as he grabbed Zell's arm, walking away toward their rooms. 

-----*****-----

Irvine and Zell trudged into the cafeteria the next morning, looking quite tired. Sighing in relief, they took their respective seats with their friends, not even bothering to order anything for breakfast.

"Hiya Irvy! The girls and I were planning to do some more shopping in Esthar today. Wanna come!?" Selphie ecstatically asked as she gave the cowboy a pat on the back.

Irvine and Zell looked towards each other, expecting the other to come up with some sort of excuse to get out of the situation. And both were thinking the same exact thing. _'Where the hell is **he** when you need him!'_

Just as Irvine was about to open his mouth, an arrogant voice popped out as if from nowhere. "Sorry messenger girl, but the cowboy and chicken wuss here are required to help me today."

"Over my dead body, Seif………" Zell began before it dawned upon him of what he was about to say. Almost immediately, the martial-artist looked up, and saw the look of arrogance he detested all too much. The rest of the group looked shocked as well, but not as far of a degree as Zell, especially Quistis.

"What? No hello nor how you've been lately?" Seifer asked in a haughty voice.

Before they could repudiate, the intercom beeped on:

__

"May I have your attention please. Will Irvine Kinneas, Zell Dincht and Seifer Almasy please report to Headmaster Cid's office immediately. I repeat, will Irvine Kinneas, Zell Dincht and Seifer Almasy please report to Headmaster Cid's office immediately. Thank you."

And to make the announcement even more stellar, it sounded as if Instructor Xu made it herself. Skeptically, Irvine and Zell left the cafeteria, followed by Seifer, who bowed down to the three ladies, plus Kari, before leaving. "It's been a pleasure."

Selphie and Rinoa both rolled their eyes and continued eating, while from Quistis, a small smile could be seen forming from her lips before she buried her face in a magazine. 

"He's weird." Kari blurted out from nowhere, between mouthfuls of cereal.

"You got that girl!" Selphie defended. 

There were another few minutes of peace before Selphie jumped onto the unavoidable topic. "So, shopping in Esthar I presume."

"Yay! Yeah!" Kari cried out in jubilation. "I wanna see Gramps!"

Both Quistis and Rinoa looked towards each other, before accepting the offer.   
"I suppose it might do Kari some good to hang out with someone as childish as herself." Rinoa stated with a small smile. Quistis couldn't help but to giggle at the comment.

"Hey Hey! If I don't say so myself, Sir Laguna is super cool! And he can be serious when he wants to at times also." the spunky yellow-dressed girl jumped in, defending the man. 

The other two girls simply rolled their eyes as they followed Kari and Selphie outside of the garden, where an airship awaited them. The shape oddly resembled that of the Ragnorak, however it was much smaller in size and held a navy blue coloring on its shell, rather than red, which the Ragnorak had. However, the velocity at which this small airship could attain was comparable to its mother. Selphie had named it the cozy airship, the Storm, for, more or less, obvious reasons.

-----*****-----

"Headmaster Cid, you called?" Irvine graciously asked as both he and Zell gave their SeeD salutes, having great respect for the man who they viewed as their father. Seifer, on the other hand, stood his ground, not wanting to show respect to the man, despite the fact he was also the closest thing he had to a father. He still had some grudges against him.

With a sad sigh, Cid turned around, giving them a fake smile. With a simple wave of his hand, he signaled them to relax their position, and knowing his demeanor, the two thought this must be **very **serious of a problem, if he wasn't saying anything.

Turning his back to them, Cid walked to the adjacent wall, which was conveniently a whole window that displayed the main lobby of the garden. He smiled again, watching his students go by their days without worries. 

By now, Zell was becoming impatient. He desperately wanted to know the reason they were up there. "Uh, Headmaster, not that I want to be rude or anything, but I just wanted to know why we were called."

This seemed to bring Cid back from his daydream as he turned around and gave them a sad smile. Almost unconsciously, Cid grabbed a manila folder from his desk and handed it to Irvine, before sitting back down at his desk, holding his hand towards on his head.

Irvine first worried about Cid, and if he was feeling all right. However, with Zell poking at him, he couldn't ask the headmaster any questions about his conditions. 

  
Eagerly, Irvine opened to folder and found only two things in front of him: a photograph and a hastily written letter, which looked more like a note than anything else. 

Obviously, Irvine's eyes trailed to the photograph first as he grabbed it from the folder and held it up to the light in front of him, trying to get a better view of what exactly his showed. Zell impatiently waited for his friend's reaction, and when he got one, he immediately regretted that fact. 

The cowboy seemed to be in a daze as the picture slowly fell out of his hands and onto the floor. "No way………" he breathed out, shocked completely out his wits.

"Hey, what's the matter?" Zell stammered out as he slowly bent down to grab the picture. He brought it up to his face, and when he finally realized of what exactly the photograph showed, his face lost all of its color. "SHIT, what the hell is up with that?!" he bellowed out softly as the photograph barely remained in the martial artist's hand.

The photograph displayed an aerial picture of Shumi Village – a small, cozy little place located in the northern part of the world. Irvine had taken a quick liking to the place when he first visited it with the others, admiring the simple beauty of it. One day, he wanted to take Selphie with him to that place on perhaps, a romantic evening in the hills, but now, he knew that could never happen. 

The picture did show Shumi Village all right, but there was one **huge** catch. The place was completely obliterated. Nothing stood upright. The ground was completely barren. There was no life present in the picture. Sure, there were many bodies and body parts here and there, but that was it. All of the cottages seemed to be _blown_apart and not even one single blade of grass, let alone a whole tree, was visible. 

Shaking out of his horrible reverie, Irvine suddenly remembered the other thing that the manila folder contained. Nervously, he took hold of the hastily written letter as the folder dropped from his grasp. It took him all his guts to read the note, but took even more to finish it.

__

"He's coming. He just came out of nowhere. We Shumis don't know how or when it happened, but this guy is ruthless, showing no mercy until he gets what he wants. He seems to use some kind of strange magic we Shumis have only read it books. 

Of course, we are not going to give him our prized item – for if used for evil, can be the source of great destruction upon this world.

I feel his presence coming ever closer to me. Oh Hyne, why did I have to be chosen to protect our prized item. I just want to save my life and run away, but even if I did, I would probably most likely die. He has no mercy. But I must protect our prized item, for if he took it, everything would surely die.

He's at the neighboring cottage. I see him from the window. I must with haste do away with this letter. Whoever is reading it, please, be aware of his power – it is very destructive, especially if he attains our prized item in his hands.

Beware of the **Phoenix Pinion**."

Irvine's gaze dropped to the floor as he struggled within himself to keep his rage inside. He wanted so badly to just yell out and scream as loud as he could. True, he did not know anyone personally that was from the Shumi Tribe up north, but anyone who could cause this much destruction, got onto Irvine's nerves.

Zell hesitantly took the letter from the cowboy's reluctant grip, not sure if he wanted to read the letter or not. In the end, he had no other choice as his eyes scanned the ripped piece of paper. His reaction was very similar as Irvine's, but was more open about his feelings as he let out a few words not always spoken in the public.

"SHIT! What the fuckin' hell is this?!! Who the hell does this guy think he IS??!?!??!" Zell yelled as he punched the wall as hard as he could, injuring his fist the in the process, but didn't show any hint of the pain. "I mean………"

"Zell, please control yourself." Cid stated commandingly, and yet, at the same time, gravely. After waiting for a few minutes, making sure the martial artist controlled his feelings, he grabbed both the photograph and the letter from Zell's hands.

Irvine, however, had a few questions. "Headmaster, many I ask a question?"

"Certainly Irvine."

He scratched his head before asking. "Well, for starters. How exactly did you obtain this letter? I mean, if what this guy said is true, I don't see a way he could have gotten this out to anybody quickly enough."

Cid shrugged. "I'm afraid I don't have a straight answer for you Irvine. Honestly, truth be told, I _don't_ have an answer. I just found this lying on my desk when I walked into the room. I don't even know how it got here, knowing the fact that nobody has the keys to this room, besides me………and well……you know……" 

Both Irvine and Zell nodded as Cid began to trail off, knowing exactly whom the headmaster was referring too. 

Minutes of eerie silence passed by before Zell broke it. "Uhh…so what do you want US to do about it?"

"Investigate." he said sternly.

"What?!" Zell was outraged. "How the hell do you expect us to investigate when there is **nothing** to investigate. You saw the freakin' photo, there is **nothing** left."

Cid shook his head as Zell quieted instantly. "I…I……I have a suspicion on who did this."

The duo jaws dropped at the same time. "Well if you did, why didn't you say anything before. I'm ready to kill this son of a bitch now!" Zell yelled once again, "swatting flies."

The cowboy, however, stood silent. _'As far as I know, there is nobody who can do this kind of destruction. Ultimecia – we defeated. The only one I can think of is Dragoon……but he died back on the moon…………………didn't he?'_

"Uh, sir. Please tell me that what I'm thinking **HAS** to be wrong." Irvine asked rather nervously as he unconsciously pulled the tie on his ponytail tighter.

Cid looked at the six-foot cowboy intensely. From the look on his eyes, he could tell. _'Yep, he has figured it out.'_ Taking a deep breath, he turned his attention to Zell, who was still anxiously waiting for the name. "Dragoon……" he breathed out, as if it had been a forbidden word to say.

Zell was taken aback, and so was Irvine, but not to a drastic extent. He had a feeling about it, and like all his bad feelings, it came true. Zell, on the other hand, refused to believe anything. 

"WHAT?! You GOT to be kidding Headmaster!!! He DIED, you hear me – DIED back on the moon. I even saw it with my own two………………" he trailed off, realizing the fact that he actually never did witness the death of the evil Lunar King. Shaking his head furiously, "No – he's dead. No one – no matter HOW freakin' powerful they are, can survive that type of explosion. No one!!!!!" he yelled, trying to prove his point to everyone.

Headmaster Cid looked upon Zell gravely as he took a deep breath. "Zell, all I said is that I have a _suspicion_ that it was him. It could as well may be anyone in the world."

"Then why the hell are you saying it's Dragoon?" Zell asked furiously. He did not want that guy to be alive, no matter what. _'**His** death could NOT be in vain.'_ Quickly shaking out of his reverie, "What evidence do you have Headmaster?!"

Once again, Cid had managed to stare out the window. He didn't have any evidence of the fact, proving any part of his suspicion, but he did have common sense. Turning around to face the three men, he curiously examined each of them. Zell was frantically going nuts – it could be seen from his countenance. Irvine, on the other hand, seemed to stay quiet, trying to quell his own consciousness. Cid then turned his head towards Seifer, who strangely enough, had stayed quiet during the whole conversation. He knew Seifer had changed but this great a deal, he had no idea.

"Zell, first, please, calm yourself down. Then I'll speak." After several minutes, Zell seemed to gain some control over his loose emotions, and Cid finally began to tell his thoughts. 

"Well Zell, to tell you the truth, I have no physical evidence to even suggest that Dragoon could be the one behind all of this. But you must remember one important point. The note clearly stated that this guy uses strange powers, and we know that the Shumis are very smart in the uses of magic. It simpler terms, they know their history of magic." Cid looked at the three before continuing on. "Now, you do know that Dragoon was successful in his task to obtain the Sorceress's powers from Rinoa Heartilly, even though she still has a minority of those powers left in her body."

After receiving a silent nod from them, excluding Seifer, who just continued to stare into space, Cid went on. "Well, putting two and two together, it _can_ be concluded that Dragoon could have used the powers to possibly teleport away from the moon before it exploded, and lived secluded from any life forms for some time. So he could have had a chance to master those powers, and create new, foreign spells that we have never seen before. And now, he has come to Earth to revenge his fallen empire, or whatever else he may have in mind."

Both Irvine and Zell nodded again as they looked towards each other with a hint of fear on their faces. 

"There is another reason too………"

At this, both of them instantly returned their attention to Cid.

Taking yet another deep breath, Cid thought about what he was going to say. "Plus, the destruction of Shumi Village happened just as quickly and deadly as the one that happened in the Centra Ruins three and a half years ago. I mean, just yesterday, we had SeeDs coming back from missions from the village." There was a long minute of silence between the four men present before Cid finished his speech.  
  
"I want you both to investigate the village for any clues or objects that may give us some sort of idea of what we are up against. Galbadia Garden has been kind enough to offer their assistance in the form of Seifer Almasy, who **willingly** agreed to help. Once you reach the village, you will there rendezvous with a SeeD from Trabia Garden. I do not know his name, but I hear he is a talented gunblade specialist as well. And may I remind you that this mission may decide the fate of the world, so it is **essential** that you learn to work together. There is a reason why we are not appointing a team leader. You are to leave tomorrow morning. And in no way, shape or form, are you to inform anybody else about this mission. We do _not_ want to invoke havoc around the garden. You are now dismissed."

Irvine and Zell stood frozen, trying to absorb all the information that the headmaster had just relayed upon them. Zell then went forward to ask the first of several questions in mind, before he was stopped by Irvine, who silently shook his head no. _'This is a delicate topic, and by the tone of his voice, I'm sure he doesn't want to discuss it any further.'_ Irvine had thought. Almost reluctantly, Zell retreated and was about to leave the room when he passed by Seifer.

  
Stopping, he looked at the guy straight in the eye. Seifer was a few inches taller than he was, so he had to churn his head up a little. He knew what he had to do. With all his courage summed up, Zell shot his hand forward. 

At first Seifer thought he was going to punch him, so reasonably started to defend, but then found Zell holding his hand in mid-air, as if waiting for a handshake. Then it all became clear. He smiled to himself as he took Zell's hand and shook it firmly – a silent vow had come across the two, to work together. It was certainly not a time for petty difference. They had a serious problem on their hands, to which they both understand the importance of. And with that, Zell left. Irvine just merely nodded his head at Seifer as he followed Zell. Wearing a disdainful smile, Seifer soon joined the three in the elevator.

-----*****-----

The Storm had landed gracefully into the hanger of Balamb Garden as three women walked out of the blue airship, along with a raven-haired child. Nightfall was fast approaching, and they wanted to reach the garden as soon as possible "Mommy!! That was fuuunnnn. We HAVE to go again sometime! Pweeeeaaasssee!!?" Kari begged as she skipped alongside her mother.

Quistis chuckled. "Well, with Laguna spoiling her like that – almost giving her everything she wanted – how come I'm not surprised she wants to go back so quickly."

The mother of the child gave an annoyed look to Quistis. _'Sure, I love Laguna. But he didn't have to go so far as to make Kari princess of Esthar for the day. Sheessh. Now I know why **he** got so mad at him sometimes.'_ Rinoa gave out an exasperated sigh as she carried several bags containing most of Kari's newly "attained" toys as well as some clothing Selphie had picked out for them. "Of course baby." she answered sweetly as Kari beamed ecstatically. 

"Well, I don't blame him entirely……" Selphie began as Rinoa gave her a confused look. "Well, he missed out on raising Sq………well, you know, he missed out on watching **him** grow up so I guess he is seeing Kari as a second chance." 

Rinoa thought upon and agreed alongside with Quistis on the point. "I suppose so Selph. But still, he didn't have to buy her everything in the toy store. We were lucky enough to come away with so few items." 

"Tell me about it. I'd rather go on another shopping spree with Selphie than with Laguna and Kari." the instructor pointed out blatantly. Rinoa nodded with a smile with her.

"HEY! What is THAT supposed to mean?" Selphie asked frantically.

"Ohhh, nothing Selph." they both replied with a chuckle.

The brunette pouted but quickly dropped the subject. "Well, at least it seems that Ellone has been acting better since we last saw her."

Immediately, the other two girls wore sad smiles upon their faces as they thought about their friend, who all of them viewed more as an elder sister. Quistis painfully closed her eyes as the flashback of their arrival to Earth came into her mind:

__

They had all escaped the explosion, with only a few bruises. But all were silent. None even one word had been spoken among the five friends as the Ragnorak slowly descended upon the Earth. It had taken a constant effort by Quistis and Selphie to quiet down Rinoa, and even then, she wouldn't stop crying – always muttering something about **him** every now and then. It was like she was in a complete trance.

Finally, almost all too quickly for their tastes, the airship landed roughly on the ground in Esthar, near the Lunar Launch Pad. Quistis had busied herself by taking a look out the window. Watching Rinoa was too depressing, and brooding over the recent past just reminded her sooo much of **him** and his "stupid" act. 

That's when she saw Laguna and Ellone rushing out of the Launch Pad building. As far as she could see, both people were wearing a glint of hope upon their faces. The instructor just shed more tears at the thought of their reaction upon hearing **his** "stupid" sacrifice. 

Finally, the door opened slowly, revealing two of the four SeeDs that had originally been sent up to take out Dragoon. Zell and Irvine wobbled out of the airship, with low-cast eyes locked directly upon the floor. Ellone instantly came running, and hugged them both, but quickly acquired the hint of apprehension upon her angelic face as she stared at her two "brothers." Quistis could see Ellone trying to pry information out of the two, but it ended completely fruitless. Hesitating only for a split second, she watched as Ellone entered the airship. 

Moments later, she had reached the room they were located in. Almost instantaneously, she vocalized her thoughts on seeing each and every one of them safe. "Ironic." the instructor couldn't help but to think. After giving emotional hugs to both Selphie and Quistis, Ellone walked up to Rinoa, who was still locked in that trance. She remembered Ellone trying to pry open Rinoa, until she finally realized the most important missing factor.

  
"Where is **he**?" she had so gently asked in the most fragile of voices. At that moment, Quistis knew this was it for Ellone. She would just be like Rinoa. It took every ounce of courage not to break down and cry then, but she knew Ellone had a right for the truth.

The only thing she could recall was Ellone screaming frantically, as she raced all over the airship to look for **him. **It was then over.

Quistis finally reopened her eyes and took a glance over to Rinoa, who had by now, handed most of her bags to Selphie as she carried Kari in her arms. She smiled sadly – Rinoa had been the lucky one, having a child to love and be loved from. But even with that, she would never be complete.

  
Ellone, however, had no one else. Sure, there was always Laguna, but he is just as depressed as the rest of them, and only covers it up with his jovial antics. He could not provide the essential companionship to her. There could only be one person who could do that, and **he** was gone.

"Hey Quistis!" 

Snapping out of her thoughts instantly, she noticed that they had actually reached their dorm rooms. 

"Hey Quisty, you ok?" Selphie asked sincerely as she felt her friend's forehead.

Quistis rather lazily pushed her hand away. "Just tired, that's all."

Selphie seemed to accept this answer as she left for her room. Looking around, Quistis noticed she was alone. _'Apparently, Rinoa has already retired.'_ Yawning, the instructor entered her room.

-----*****-----

It was quite a solemn breakfast as both Irvine and Zell, in the girls eyes, remained peculiar quiet. All Selphie was able to produce from Irvine was that Headmaster Cid wanted them to go on a mission. 

Breakfast was quickly over for everyone's taste, as Seifer calmly walked over to the table hidden in the back of the cafeteria. It was quite shocking that Zell and Irvine suddenly followed him out of the cafeteria, as if they were all in this "mission" together.

"Very strange………" Selphie commented as she stuffed Irvine's leftover bagel into her mouth.

  
"Indeed." Quistis said with a nod. 

"Mommy……I want to play outside!" Kari exclaimed, after finishing her milk.

Rinoa looked to be in a trance, but was suddenly snapped out of it by Kari's voice. "Sure, just let me clean up here and then we can go outside for a little while. Is that ok, baby?"

"Yep yep mommy!" the little girl happily answered as she started to hastily clean up her plates. Rinoa smiled at the energetic little angel of hers as she finished eating as cleaned up along with her daughter.

"You guys want to come?" Rinoa asked.

"Yea yea! Wanna come Aunty Quisty and Aunty Sefy!"

Both girls giggled at Kari's sudden outburst. It was truly amazing what energy the little girl had all bottled down inside her body. "Sure! We'd love to!" Selphie answered as she picked up Kari and began dancing with her.

Suddenly, the intercom beeped, signaling an announcement.

__

"This is Headmaster Cid speaking…"

At this, everyone in the cafeteria and the garden stopped whatever they were doing. Whenever the headmaster made an announcement, it was usually during times of crisis or other similar events. It **had** to be important.

"I wonder what's wrong……" Selphie whispered to Rinoa and Quistis, who just nodded mutely, awaiting the announcement.

__

"Will Commander Squall Leonhart report to my office immediately! I repeat, will Commander Squall Leonhart report to my office immediately! That is all." 

Everyone in the whole entire garden stood still as all eyes in the cafeteria slowly turned their gaze to a frozen Rinoa. 

****

Author's Notes: I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. It took me awhile to write it, with major tests and all coming all of a sudden, I barely was able to fit it into my schedule. But nevertheless, here it is. And as always, please **read and review**, I would LOVE to see what you guys think of my story so far. And thanks to EVERYBODY whose been reviewing so far, you don't know how much that keeps me alive!!!!!


	5. Confirmation

****

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 8 or its characters. They are ALL copyrighted by Squaresoft. ALL the chapters in this fic follow the same disclaimer!!!! I just own my created characters.

************************* 

Chapter 4 – Confirmation

*************************

He finally woke up from his slumber with a tired yawn, only to be greeted by a voice that greeted him every time he happened to start a new day. 

**__**

"Have a nice sleep?"

"Just peachy, Bahamut." he replied back as he yawned once again, rubbing his eyes of any drowsiness still retained upon himself. "Uh, how long have I've been asleep for?"

**__**

"About a day and a half." the guardian force replied in his head.

He yawned again. "Well, that's good. That'll give me, what? Another three of four days to spend without any sleep."

**__**

"Yeah, seems that way."

The man rolled his eyes as the first rays of sunlight started to creak through the blinds that covered the window. As if it was a common practice, he stood up and opened the coverings, letting sunlight pour its radiance throughout the dorm room. He finally took a good look at the room, and saw that nothing changed. "Odd……" he whispered as he made his way to the bathroom.

"Now that's what I need – a nice, long hot shower. Can't remember the last time I had that."

**__**

"Exactly four years, one month and twenty-five days ago." Bahamut casually replied.

Sighing in annoyance, the man removed his hackneyed and torn clothes as he turned on the shower. Surprisingly, it let out hot water almost immediately. _'Ok, so that's twice in a span of two minutes that something weird has happened.'_

Not letting his thoughts ruin the moment, he finished his shower in peace, staying in there for thirty whole minutes. Unconsciously, he grabbed a towel that hung from the hanger as he dried himself off. It took him a minute to realize what just happened. "Now I'm scared."

  
He could hear Bahamut chuckling inside his mind, and as a result, he quickly shut him out of his thoughts immediately as he took a look around his room to find any traces of new clothes. Apparently, there were none. "Oh well."

Just then, the intercom beeped on:

__

"Will Commander Squall Leonhart report to my office immediately! I repeat, will Commander Squall Leonhart report to my office immediately! That is all."

Squall froze right in the middle of putting on his clothes. "Please tell me he didn't just say what I think he just said?"

**__**

"I'm afraid so, master." the voice once again replied.

"Didn't I _just_ shut you out of my thoughts. You know, I am human, and I need some privacy!" he shouted in the air as he finished putting his signature belts around his pants and grabbed his jacket. 

**__**

"Ok, ok – sorry. But what are you going to do about the call?"

The commander pondered over this for some time. _'Well, for starters, that was certainly the sound of Headmaster Cid – so he must have something important to say. The question is, how does he know I'm here?'_

Bahamut gave an annoyed sigh inside his master's mind. **_"Insolent fool! For one thing, you forgot about the security cameras around the place. And secondly, it is also safe to assume that since you just took a shower, that probably triggered some kind of response to the central security controls – wherever they are."_**

'Then why the HELL did you not tell me about this before?!' he asked back in a slightly angered tone.

It was Bahamut's turn to have the last word. **_"Well, I'm tired of you keeping your existence a secret. If I have to spend another week with you alone, I know I'll go insane. Your thoughts are so unorganized, it would make a psychiatrist go to its grave early. Plus, I'm doing you a favor. Trust me, have I ever been wrong before?"_**

Squall muttered something under his breath that luckily, Bahamut did not hear. Swiftly putting on his fur-lined jacket, and sheathing his weapon, Squall slowly creaked open the door and peeked out. "Good, no sign of anyone." he breathed out in a sigh of relief.

**__**

"So, are you going?"

"Have I ever broken the rules before?" the commander replied with a grin as he navigated his way towards the elevator as stealthily as he could.

-----*****-----

There was no sound, whatsoever. Every single person in the entire garden remained silent as minutes passed since the message was relayed upon the school. All eyes in the cafeteria remained on Rinoa, as a few murmurs started to spring forth. Voices so low, that only a person that stood inches away from it could be the only one who heard what was being said. 

Then the silence broke. Everyone watched Rinoa suddenly jump out of her chair and literally, ran as fast as lightning out of the cafeteria. There were no doubts in anyone's mind as to where she was headed. 

"Aunty Selphy……where did mommy go?" Kari asked suddenly. "And how come everybody got so quiet?" Still receiving no answer, the small child pulled on Selphie's skirt, trying to attract her attention, and finally, looked at her face. 

  
She was crying. In joy or sadness, Kari didn't know, or cared for that matter.

Kari became a bit startled, then regained a look of determination. "I will solve this myssssteerry!" Unknown to every single person in the area, the little angel sneaked away from everybody and ran into the direction where Rinoa had just ran off to just moments before.

-----*****-----

She was running – to where – she had no clue. Her body all of a sudden reacted, as if a huge explosion within her occurred. It took her brain a little while longer to actually figure out what was happening, and her heart had trouble accepting the truth. _'He's dead. He's not here. I must have heard wrong.'_ she kept on retelling herself in her mind. However, to her heart's desire, her conscious kept telling her otherwise.

  
Finally, she found herself in the main hall of the garden, where the map was kept. Suddenly, a beeping sound was heard, and instantaneously, she whipped her head towards the source of the sound – the elevator. Running up the stairs, she saw a figure enter it, and could have sworn she saw a rather familiar looking weapon hooked onto his waist, but couldn't clearly define what it actually was. However, the doors closed on her all too quickly for her taste, as her view of the man disappeared. 

"Curse those new doors!" she whispered fiercely under her breath. Only a few months ago, there had been a slight accident with the transparent elevator doors. A student was throwing a ball around, and before they knew it, the ball came in contact with the glass doors. Cid then replaced the glass ones with opaque, solid metal doors, not wanting another glass massacre happening again.

Rinoa ran up to the elevator and pushed the button frantically, hoping to stop the elevator before it reached its destination – which she guessed must have been the third floor. However, the transporter never arrived. 

"DAMN!" she cried out in despair as she collapsed to the ground, right in front of the elevator. _'I am NOT going to leave this spot. I have to find out the truth.'_

-----*****-----

The Storm had taken off nearly an hour ago, and there was already tension building between the three men, namely Zell and Seifer. Irvine noticed both of them glancing looks at one another frequently, as if they still couldn't trust the other. And whenever their eyes did meet, both with just give an obscene gesture, and look away once again. 

Irvine sighed in annoyance at the two. "Jeez, can't you idiots get along just for one minute?" he muttered under his breath, and unfortunately for him, both of them heard.

"Shutup!" both Seifer and Zell yelled in unison, turning their heads quickly away from one another at the same time.

"Look! Let me get ONE thing straight! I do NOT want to be here. I've been forced against my will, so don't think for one god forsaken minute that I will even start to enjoy your company." Seifer stated out defiantly, before leaving the cockpit off to whom knew where.

"YEA! Well, let me tell you that I absolutely DETEST your fuckin' presence!" Zell insulted back, hoping he would get the last word in. If Seifer did indeed hear it, he made no sign to the remark as he left.

Zell slumped back into his chair, crossing his arms. "God……why the hell does he have to be so annoying and arrogant."

Irvine merely rolled his eyes as he let the Storm drive on autopilot. Looking out the window, he noticed their destination in the horizon. "Shumi Village………."

-----*****-----

"Squall……don't leave me. Squall……don't leave me. Please, come back to me." Rinoa's voice pronounced out with emotionless feeling.

"Rinoa……please get up." Selphie begged as she tried to drag her friend off of her knees and onto her feet. "Please……I beg of you. You're starting to scare me with all this."

Quistis shook her head sadly as she strenuously separated Selphie from Rinoa, and took her into a corner. "Look. She's gone insane. Hearing his name has surely triggered something in her mind."

Selphie looked at Rinoa worryingly. "I know Quisty. I still have trouble believing what's just happened in the last ten minutes. Who would have thought he's been alive all this time? But still, why is she just sitting there. It looks like she is in some kind of weird trance or something. Its actually very scary."

Quistis looked on with Selphie at their fallen friend. "Well, there is only one cure for her disease now, and supposedly, he's up there with Headmaster Cid, right at this very moment."

The brunette nodded casually, agreeing with her friend. "Still, if he was alive, why the hell did he not show himself to us first! And to Rinoa – doesn't she deserve to know! After all the suffering and pain she had to go through, and now its all coming back." Selphie began to get angrier by the minute. "That freakin' idiot! When I see him, I am definitely going to give him a piece of my mind!"

Quistis shrugged. "He must have his reasons……and if he knows what's good for him – they better be **damn** good reasons too, or else he'll have me to deal with also."

Selphie smiled devilishly at the ideas popping in her head when something just hit her. "Uh Quisty, where's Kari?"

The instructor froze. "I….I…I thought she was with you?"

Both girls looked at each other before turning their stares towards Rinoa. _'If she gets to know about this, it would be all over for her emotionally.'_ both thought at the same time.

"You stay here Selph and I'll go look for her. She still must be in the cafeteria."

-----*****-----

He jumped out of the third story window and used Float to drastically slow down his fall towards the ground. Landing on the earth with a thud, he readjusted his weapon that was hanging from his waist as he made his way back to the main entrance of the garden. The meeting with the headmaster had gone totally differently than he thought it would.

**__**

"No offense master, but was that necessary?" the dragon guardian force asked.

Squall smirked. "Hey, he had an open window, it was just asking me to go ahead and jump out. Plus, I haven't done that in a long time. It's pretty invigorating if you ask me."

**__**

"Whatever……"

"Oooo, I thought you hated whenever I said that word?" Squall asked smugly.

**__**

"You know, I could kill you any second. Just one move, and you would be dead."

"Yeah, yeah. I've heard it all before. And I'm totally frightened." the commander added sarcastically. "Your empty threats don't scare me."

Oddly enough, Bahamut chose to stay quiet after that. "Finally……" Squall muttered. "Some peace and quiet………….now I can concentrate of what Headmaster Cid said." 

**__**

"Yeah – with what he said, it all points to our suspicions. Anyway, are you going to follow through with his advice?"

Before Squall had the chance to reply, he heard bushes rustling near the entrance of the garden. Hesitating for only a fraction of a second, he dove to hide behind a huge tree, peaking out to see what exactly the cause of the rustling. What he saw what the last thing he was expecting.

He was totally dumbstruck. "A child………?" _'And here I thought it was a T-Rexasaur monster or something.'_ Quickly shrugging of his shock, he remained hidden a bit longer, curious to know why a girl, no more than three years old to his judgement, would be doing at a military school like Balamb Garden. 

  
Squall watched with a hint of curiosity, as the girl seemed to be walking around, further and further away from the safe haven of the garden. It was without any doubt that monsters would be lurking around, for food most likely. For some odd reason, he felt a protective force was pulling him towards this small child, as if he should be doing this.

Once again shaking his head to snap out of his reverie, Squall cautiously followed her, always hiding himself in the shadows, or behind trees and bushes. It was until they had almost reached the Fire Cavern that the girl stopped walking. She started to look around, and seconds later, broke down crying. Sympathizing with the girl instantly, Squall began walking towards her, when a huge monster literally sprouted out from nowhere. 

The girl's eyes widened immensely as she backed away from the monster as quickly as she could, that is, until she backed up into a wall. The monster gave a huge, deafening roar, to which the girl cowered in fear as she began to cry greatly. "Mommy……somebody…………………_daddy_………help me…" the little girl whispered through sobs as the monster lunged towards his **snack**.

Before Kari knew what happened, the monster that was attacking her suddenly dropped dead a few feet from her. Its jaw was left open as its lifeless eyes were staring directly at the little child. Before any rational thoughts could go through her mind, she screamed loudly as the crying inevitably began once again. 

The snap of a twig grabbed her attention as the two-year-old prodigy child looked around for the source of the sound. It was then, she gasped. 

A man, with bushy brown hair and a scar that looked liked the one Seifer had, appeared out of the bushes nearby. Kari's crying instantly stopped as she stared at the strange man. His black jeans were very dirty and his boots had a lot of mud. His jacket looked brownish in color and had a white fur on the top. However, as he came closer, the little child could not pry herself away from his stare – a stare she found very familiar, as if looking in a mirror.

"Are you lost little girl?" he asked.

Not finding the strength to speak, Kari could only nod as she stared up to his guy in awe.

"Do you want me to take you home."

At this, Kari nodded once again. Tears once again threatened to spill out as she ran up to the stranger and hugged his leg as hard as she could, muffling her sound of sobbing into him. 

Smiling warmly, the man picked up the small child into his arms. Kari adjusted herself comfortably in the stranger's arms as she nestled her heard safely against this person's chest. Despite the fact she had no clue who he was, the feeling of complete security engulfed her when in his arms. 

Squall looked down at the little child in his arms in amazement as she quickly drifted off to sleep. He had only seen this calm, angelic, look of serenity that this child had only once before in his entire life. _'Maybe……'_ "No way, can't be." 

  
Briskly shaking the possibility out of his head, the commander started to trudge back to the safe walls of the garden. However, before walking away, he turned his stare to the dead monster that was lying on the ground. Not that he was totally worried or anything, but the one fact about this monster still lingered in his head. _'I've never seen this creature on Earth before, but I **know** I've seen it somewhere……….but where'_

The fallen creature was red in coloring. From what Squall could make of the dead carcass, it resembled a cross between a snake and grizzly bear. "Strange." he murmured out before turning his back to it once again, heading towards the garden.

Unbeknownst to Squall however – once he had traveled a safe distance away from the monster – another figure approached the dead carcass, and with and evil grin, he let out a brief, dull flash of light, and within the same second, both the figure and the dead carcass had disappeared.

-----*****-----

It was well into the night when Squall had finally reached the garden. Hesitantly, he entered the military academy from the front gate. "If I haven't been seen yet, than surely I'm going to be seen now."

Surprisingly enough, there was no one in sight, and Squall finally let out a sigh of relief when the gate guard was not even present at his usual spot. "Hyne must be on my side at this moment." silently thanking the gods.

Walking through the gate, Squall felt Kari stir in his arms, signaling she would wake up any minute. The last thing he wanted was a crying child to deal with. If anything would attract attention, it would be that. Looking forward, he was relieved when he saw two girls near the elevator. A third girl, dressed in red as far as he could tell, then came running to join them as well. 

Not waiting any longer, the lone wolf quietly nudged the girl in his arms awake. When she finally did regain consciousness, she was about to open her mouth, when Squall hastily put his hand it. Shaking his head and putting a finger to his own lips, he signaled the girl to stay quiet. 

  
The only response he got back was a confused look upon her countenance. Smiling inwardly, he once again looked in awe upon the girl when an idea popped into his head. 

Quickly digging into his pockets, he finally came upon a sole piece of black ribbon, triggering a locked away memory to the surface:

__

A girl in blue simply smiled. "This ribbon – my mother gave it to me. And I'm just giving it to you for good luck, and I want it back. So you better not go dying off, or else!" she commanded mockingly, all the while in tears.

Squall smiled sadly at the memory. _'Well, to her, I suppose I'm dead, so I guess it'll be ok if I give it to someone who reminds me of her. I'm sure she would want me to.'_ Confirming the thought in his mind, he bent down and took the girls let arm and tied the symbolic black ribbon around it. "Keep it safe." he told her gently. Not being able to resist the urge, Squall kissed the girl on her forehead like a father would with his child.

Standing up, he pointed his finger towards the three girls near the elevator, and with that, walked away from the child – leaving her **totally** confused to everything that just had happened.

-----*****-----

"Quistis, did you find her?" Selphie asked in a very worried tone.

"Damnit, no! I looked everywhere!"

"Well, Rinoa now knows she's missing. She looked as if she going to kill me. You should have seen her Quisty. Her mind is gone." the brunette added, biting her fingernails.

The instructor looked sympathetically at Rinoa. _'Hyne, she's already lost Squall. Please, if you have any mercy, let Kari show up!'_

As if on cue, both Selphie and Quistis heard the beautiful voice of a small child singing a song, or at least attempting to. Both girls looked totally relieved as they shed tears of happiness. 

Rinoa's head perked up as she turned one hundred and eight degrees around, facing her daughter. Crying loudly, she ran up to her and picked her up, raining kisses all over her face and head. 

"Mommmmmmmy, you could stop now. You're starting to hurt me." Kari struggled to say as Rinoa kept her possessive grip upon her child. 

Rinoa, on the other hand, was getting all worked up. "Kari baby, where on Earth did you go. You don't know how much I was……………" She stopped her sentence midway as her eyes landed on something she thought she would have never seen again.

Both Quistis and Selphie had a puzzled looked upon their faces, wondering what was wrong with Rinoa now.

Almost reluctantly, Rinoa's hand approached the ribbon tied around her daughter's arm, and finally made contact. Instantly, she knew. "Kari, where did you get this?" she asked in the lowest of voices, almost breathing the entire question out.

Scared by her mother's tone of voice, the little child answered quickly. "This man with brown hair and a scar like stupid Seifer, gave it to me. He said to 'Keep it safe,' whatever that means.

Rinoa literally, stood frozen.

****

Author's Notes: I am very sorry for the late update of this story. I had AP tests to study for and all. But all of that is in the past now, and here is Chapter 4 of Reality and Illusion. Once again, for all you people that are anxiously awaiting the Rinoa/Squall meeting, I am sorry - it was not planned to be in this chapter. But rest assured, it will be in the next. I just had to have Squall meet his child first, although he doesn't know it at the moment.

I got a few feedbacks on the fact that some readers were confused on how Cid knew Squall was at the garden. I cleared all of that up this chapter, so I apologize for the confusion - and yes, it was supposed to be like that.

Once again, I **truly thank all of you** for reading and reviewing my story. It means SO much to me. I hope your enjoying it.

Leave a **REVIEW! ^_^**


	6. Reunion

****

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 8 or its characters. They are ALL copyrighted by Squaresoft. ALL the chapters in this fic follow the same disclaimer!!!! I just own my created characters.

*********************

Chapter 5 – Reunion

*********************

"Damn, this looks even worse in reality than in the photograph."

Irvine he stepped out of the Storm slowly, followed closely by Seifer. All the cowboy could do was nod in response to Zell's statement. _'Man, Zell's right.'_ Shumi Village was reduced to ashes as true to the photograph, not even one cottage was left standing. The earth below their feet was barren almost to the point of the color black. Body parts were everywhere, as the only color visible, besides black and brown, was red. Even the sky around the area was a dark gray.

Shaking his head in disbelief, Irvine took the initiative and started to walk around. After a minute, Zell and Seifer soon followed him, their eyes traveling in every direction imaginable, trying to pinpoint something _amiss_ among the ruins and at the same time, still trying to take in the reality of their surroundings.

"This is definetely no illusion." Irvine blatantly stated, as part of him hoped that the photograph that was shown to them earlier was somehow, a fake.

"No kidding, cowboy." Seifer replied. "Might as well start looking around. Split up, and if you find something unusual, just shout or something. Meet back here in a couple of hours." Seifer then journeyed further into town, or whatever was left of it.

Irvine nodded. "Zell, you stay around here and scrutinize this area carefully. I'll head towards the end of town, and see if I can find anything there. Catch you later." With the cowboy walking away, Zell turned around and faced his mission. "I'm going to solve this mystery, if not for the world, at least for **him.**"

The martial artist firstly performed a Scan spell, to see if anything out of the ordinary was visible through it. Unfortunately, the spell returned fruitless results and Zell had to resort to the older style of investigation – getting onto his hands and knees.

-----*****-----

Seifer walked towards the heart of the city, looking around himself every now and then. Throughout his life, he had witnessed many acts of manslaughter and destruction of monsters, but none as worse as what had happened to Shumi Village. "This is unbelievable." he muttered to himself as he unconsciously kicked a few body parts here and there while walking. Unexpectedly, despite the fact that it didn't feel like it, two hours had passed while investigating. "Not even one fucking clue." Taking another quick check around, making sure he didn't miss anything, Seifer headed back to where they were supposed to meet.

Unbeknownst to the gunblader, sets of eyes were watching him with each and every step he took.

-----*****-----

"UNBELIEVABLE! Not even one fucking clue around!" Zell yelled in the air, waving his fists in frustration. "How the hell does a guy blow up a freakin' town and doesn't even leave one fucking clue about himself! I find that impossible!"

"And I find your attitude impossible." a voice proclaimed in the distance.

Zell sighed as he sat down on the floor cross-legged. "I'm not in the mood for your bullshit, Seifer. We got a serious problem on our hands."

The blond looked shocked at Zell's sudden change in disposition regarding the situation they were in, but quickly hid it. _'As much as I hate to agree with chicken wuss, he's right. This is not the time for our quarrels.'_

"You find anything?" 

The question brought Seifer back to reality, and began to answer it when a sneeze was heard in the bushes in the distance. Zell instantly retreated into a fighting stance as Seifer quickly unsheathed his gunblade, the Hyperion. The silver-colored blade glimmered as rays from the sun beamed down onto it.

Seifer gave Zell a quickly glance, wordlessly telling him that he was going in. Zell nodded as he readied himself a couple of deadly spells, just in case his comrade needed help.

Within a blink of an eye, Seifer had disappeared. The martial artist was shocked completely at the speed at which his former adversary left with. _'Damn, during those couple of years, Seifer surely has been training. Better be careful not to get on his bad side from now on.'_ he silently thought to himself.

Before Zell knew it, Seifer had yelled out an attack as he saw the blond warrior dive into the bushes with his gunblade in an attacking position, ready to slice. Only a split second later, did Zell realize that Seifer had actually intended to disarm the opponent, despite the fact he didn't even see him, or her for that matter. "Shit, he **has** improved."

The martial artist waited a minute or two before deciding to step into the area where Seifer had unexpectedly leaped. As Zell parted the bushes away, he found a thing, a human being to be more precise, at the mercy of Seifer's hands – Seifer had his gunblade pointed towards the back of the guy's neck. Looking around, Zell spotted a crimson red gunblade in the distance, obviously belonging to the mysterious guy. _'He must be from Trabia……'_

Gulping down greatly, Zell gathered enough courage to slowly put his hand onto Seifer's blade and lower it down gradually. "Chill out Seifer – I think he's the guy Cid was talking about. You remember, the Tra-bia gun-blader."

Seifer glared at Zell before sneering arrogantly, kicking the mysterious guy in the back before resheathing his weapon. "Well, I still don't see a freakin' reason why he has to be sneaking around, like he was spying or something."

  
"Well, I thought you guys were bad guys or something." Zell and Seifer looked down upon the mysterious guy, who had just spoken for the first time. "It's a mistake, it could happen to anyone, and from the current circumstance, it happened to both of us."

Gritting his teeth, Seifer had to admit – this sorry excuse for a warrior was right. "Eh, get the hell off the ground and get your weapon." Walking back to camp, Seifer muttered something under his breath about the guy not being talented at all it fighting, proving Cid wrong about his previous statement.

Once all three regrouped at the camp, which was only a few yards away from the _struggle_, they sat down around the fire as nightfall started to dawn upon them. 

  
"So, you got a name, or what?" Zell asked.

Now Seifer had finally gotten a better look at the new guy and it was then he realized it was the same bastard who insulted Fujin and Raijin in Balamb a couple of days ago. _'Shit! This is going to be harder than I thought. First the chicken wuss, and now this sorry excuse of a fighter.'_

"Zack………Zack Nuriko." the man finally responded.

Scratching his head, Zell finally extended his hand outward to their new ally. "I'm Zell Dincht and the other guy over there is Seifer Almasy. Nice to have you on the team." 

Hesitantly, Zack accepted Zell's hand, and both men firmly shook, signifying an alliance. Zack was about to do the same to Seifer, before he quickly thought against it. It surely was not the right time to talk to him, considering what had just happened.

Several minutes of silence passed between the three men before Zack realized something. "Hey, I remember seeing three of you enter the village."

"HOLY SHIT!" Zell and Seifer exclaimed in unison.

-----*****-----

With his Exeter, Irvine's most trusted weapon, in his hand, the cowboy took fearless steps into the unknown. "If someone can do this in such a short amount of time, I better be careful." 

He entered the first cottage in his sight, and stood frozen in place at what his eyes revealed to him. If he didn't have a reason to be emotionally broken before, he did now. Right before his eyes, stood the person of his heart's desire, hanging from the ceiling with a rope tied around her neck. The unmistakable smell of death hung around the cottage, signaling the fact that she had been dead for some time. "Selphie………" was the only word out of the cowboy's mouth before the sound of the Exeter falling to the floor gave its echo in the room. 

"It…can't…be… I just saw you fine only a couple of hours ago." Not trusting his own eyes, Irvine couldn't help but to edge closer to the limp body hanging from the roof. Her arms were tied behind her back and her head was hung low, so her hair covered her eyes. 

Closing the distance between himself and Selphie to a couple of feet, Irvine hesitated whether to go any further or not. He was not ready to accept the reality of the situation if indeed, it was true.

  
Suddenly, Selphie's head perked up swiftly as her eyes locked themselves onto Irvine's, who cowered in fear, but did not take a step back. Irvine gulped down hard as he took another courageous step forward, closing the distance to mere inches. The last thing Irvine remembered was seeing Selphie's eyes turn an eerie yellow and an evil smile creep upon her lips before darkness overcame the sharpshooter.

-----*****-----

The lone wolf came out of the training grounds sweating and panting, but looking pretty much unharmed, with the exception for a few scratches here and there. His trusted weapon was sheathed at his waist, and after looking around – making sure that all was clear – he navigated his way back to his dorm room.

"Man, that was refreshing. Nothing beats a day fighting Grats and T-rexasaur monsters at the training center." Squall said as he stretched his sore arms a little.

Bahamut smirked. **_"I suppose, but do you think it was wise for you to train out in the open, especially in an area as accessible as the training center?"_**

With a wave of his hand, his master declared it to be no problem. "Nah, and besides, Cid told me that today was the day of the SeeD field test, so almost all of the are at their field test. Plus, the training center is supposed to be closed down for an upgrade in monsters – remember the sign we saw on the way in?"

**__**

"True………"

"Good, then it's settled. Now that we're off of that topic, why don't I go and take a nice, long relaxing shower." the commander said rather dreamily. "You can never have enough of those in a lifetime."

**__**

"Humph, make that two lifetimes." Bahamut stated in a grumpy tone of voice.

"Bahamut……"

**__**

"Yes?"

"May I remind you that I do NOT want to talk about _that_. Do you want to be locked up………again?" Squall's tone was surprisingly deadly.

**__**

"Consider me as good as gone."

Squall sighed, "Finally…maybe I'll get at least an hour of peace in my mind." Not that he hated conversations with his favorite Guardian Force in his own mind, but whenever the topic about their recent past ever came up, he did not want to even graze the subject, let alone talk about it. The last few years were the worst he had ever faced, and if it had not been for Bahamut, he wouldn't have been there in the first place. 

  
Before he had any more time to think about it, he finally reached his dorm room. Unlocking it quickly, and entering just as fast, Squall secured the door shut as he slumped onto his bed. _'Oh yeah, the shower.'_

Entering his bathroom, Squall turned on the shower, and unexpectedly, found the shower to be quite cold at first. Shrugging, he turned it towards the hot water side and let it run for a few minutes. As he was about to take off his clothes, the inevitable finally happened – the thing he was dreading: a knock on his door.

Almost instantaneously, he turned of the shower and stood dead silent, hoping that the visitor was just a passerby of some sort. But then again, why would a passerby knock on **his** door, when everyone knew whom the room belonged to. 

Unfortunately for Squall, the visitor was persistent, as the knocking grew more rapid and louder, as if pleading to get it. A million thoughts were going through the commander's mind, but the thought of an emergency was at the front. "It might be Cid with some important info, and maybe he didn't want to call me over the intercom again." he rationalized out loud to himself. To further Squall's dilemma, and annoyance, Bahamut had decided to keep himself quiet. "Goddamn dragon………I might as well open it."

Gathering whatever courage he had in his body, Squall approached his door, but did not open it immediately. The knocking seemed to have stopped, and for awhile, he thought that perhaps the person had finally left. Just as he was about to turn away from the _cursed_ door, the knocking came once again, and this time louder than ever, making Squall wince in fear – a feeling he had all too long forgotten. No one had been able to make him do that, with the exception of **her.**

However, all inhibitions were thrown out the window and Squall made a grab towards the handle and whipped the door open. At that instant, when he laid eyes upon the visitor, all of his senses, except for sight, were gone – it was **her.** "Rinoa……"

She was about to turn away. 

  
It all started about some hours ago, when she left Kari in the care of Quistis and Selphie. Seeing her child safe, she wanted to get to the bottom of this. She couldn't believe that she actually stormed into the Headmaster's office – giving the stare of death to all who stood in her way – and actually threatened Cid, the man who behaved more of a father to her than her blood one, to confess the mystery about **him.**

She couldn't take the drama any more. She **_needed_** to know. Her whole life stood on the thread of a simple string whenever **he** was mentioned. Even more surprising, Cid had actually confessed the truth, and told his side of the story, which proved to be even more shocking that she ever thought it could be.

But she had no time to ponder over that. Relaying the story to her took up an hour's worth of time. She left his office dazed, having extreme difficulty to accept the fact that Cid knew all along that Squall was alive. Cid knew she could have killed him in that instant, for keeping the secret for so long, but Cid nevertheless confessed. However, the look in his eye when telling the story told her it wasn't complete. If she wanted to know more, there would be only one way to find out.

It took her another hour to gather enough courage to walk up to his dorm room. Nightfall had already landed upon the Earth, and with Kari safe in Selphie's capable hands, she could focus all her attention on this "mission."

And then she knocked, and waited. Still no reply. She kept on knocking, and no answer. Maybe he had left, she had thought. With her eyes brimming with tears that would ultimately shed, she knocked one last time, and was about to turn away, when the door finally flew open.

The first thing she noticed were his eyes. She knew it was him from the very bottom of her heart. 

Both of them just stood there, looking each other in the eye. Both were too frightened to say anything – for fear of saying the wrong thing, and for the fear that it might all just be another sick illusion someone has played on their pitiful lives.

Her mind needed physical evidence. With tears starting to fall from her chocolate brown eyes, she raised her hand to his face, stopping just mere inches from any contact. She was frightened at the person who could give her all the security she would ever need. She did not want him to disappear.

  
With one last act of courage, she placed her finger gently on his scar that ran down from his forehead to the bridge of his nose. She traced it, and when she got to the end of the line, there was nothing else to do.

She hugged him.

There was not one rational thought that lingered in his mind. Squall was totally frozen – in shock – he had no clue. But when her hand landed on his face, it all came back to him. The notion that it was no illusion, but a reality gave him the strength that he needed. He was about to hug her, when she threw herself against his body, surrendering herself completely to his mercy. 

  
At that instant, all of Squall's hard work to rebuild a wall around his heart, collapsed instantly at her embrace. It was not that he didn't want it, but the fact that he didn't deserve it; the fact that he shouldn't have it. But nevertheless, he returned the hug.

Rinoa then started to cry.

"Rinoa………"

Before Squall could say anymore, Rinoa squeezed him tighter, if it was possible. Squall struggled to breathe, but he didn't care. "Please, Squall. Just shutup. Just shut the hell up."

  
And that was all he needed as he gently pulled his angel into his room, kicking his door closed and locking it, making sure no other person could interrupt. All the meanwhile, Rinoa still had not let go of her embrace on her knight. She already told herself she probably would never let go again.

Not knowing what else to do, Squall stayed in the embrace. He just relished in the warmth Rinoa was sending him – a warmth he thought he would never receive again. 

The heaven-made couple stayed like that for Hyne knew how long. It could have been seconds, minutes, hours – or even an eternity long – they did not care. 

Finally, she broke the silence. "Squall……why didn't you tell me?" 

Squall's eyes widened and shortly after fell in disgrace as he broke the embrace they were sharing. Walking towards the open window, he looked out and stared at the dark abyss located above – where all the shining burnt out specs of light shined brilliantly, and where the new moon radiated its usual color. They all brought back unwanted memories – painful memories he did not want to burden anyone with.

"I had my reasons Rinoa………You couldn't even begin to comprehend what I have seen and gone through." he answered softly, a lone tear escaping his eye.

Rinoa had nothing else but compassion and sympathy for her love. She could only imagine what he had to go through these past years. But he also had many great things waiting for him in the future. Slowly, Rinoa walked up to him and wrapped her hands around his back. "Please Squall, I want to share your pain."

He hadn't anticipated this. Maybe it was because of his separation from her, or maybe it was just him, but he had not expected Rinoa to be so caring and compassionate towards him. He had expected her to be bitter for leaving her alone for so long. Nevertheless, he turned around, and softly knocked his forehead against hers. "Thank you." he sincerely whispered, followed by his radiant smile, which was only reserved for her.

Rinoa gasped. He was gorgeous. She then decided it was her mission to make him smile like that more often – to break him open once again like she did a lifetime ago. After all, if he was going to be a husband, and more importantly, a father, she had no other choice.

"Squall……" she breathed, but before she had the chance to say more, she was engaged in a heart-warming kiss. A kiss that she realized all too soon she had missed so much, a kiss that mended the very bottom of her shattered soul, a kiss that made her, in one word, complete.

Neither knew how long it had lasted, but eventually, both had to break apart to gasp for air. Both of them smiled at each other lovingly, before Squall's fatigue from the training center earlier that day had finally caught up to him.

"Sorry Rinny………I'm feeling a bit lightheaded." 

Rinoa eyes shifted to the floor. She didn't want the moment to end. Hell, she never wanted to leave him **ever** again. But something told her that he wouldn't leave, and that was all she needed. She had to respect his want for privacy……for now at least. "Oh, ok. I guess I should leave………"

Just as she was turning around, she felt his strong grasp around her wrist. Whipping her head around, she connected with Squall's stare – a stare full of admiration and love. "If you think I'm letting you go anywhere this late at night, you're clearly mistaken."

Her heartbeat skipped a few beats as she smiled throughout her falling tears. That was all she wanted to hear.

Squall had picked her up and before she knew it, she was lying on his bed with him. Almost as if it had been a regular habit, she rolled on top of her knight and stared into his eyes. In it, she could see every single emotion that Squall held within himself – love, pain, sympathy, empathy, and much more. She went down for one last kiss before she nuzzled herself comfortably in the crook of his neck, where, for the first time in the past years, she slept like a baby. 

  
With Squall's strong hands holding her tightly against him, every insecurity she had felt before were washed away. His warmth, his touch, his lips, his presence was all that she needed at the moment. And to her surprise and liking, she received it all.

****

Author's Notes: Well here it is - the long awaited, and very much anticipated, Rinoa/Squall meeting. I really felt like this was the way they would react if they were presented in this situation. For you guys who are interested in Squall's past, sorry, I did not reveal it yet. But it will happen in time, so relax. As for Irvine, well, I know you guys are probably confused on what just happened to him, but rest assured - it's a major part of the plot and will be explained in later chapters, so don't wrack your brains about it. 

And as always, I thank all of you from the very bottom of my heart for the reviews. They are what keep me writing. 

So, as I always say: **LEAVE A REVIEW! ^_^**


	7. Lost and Found

****

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 8 or its characters. They are ALL copyrighted by Squaresoft. ALL the chapters in this fic follow the same disclaimer!!!! I just own my created characters.

****************************

Chapter 6 – Lost and Found

****************************

"It's been waaay too long for Irvine. We have to go get him NOW!" Zell stammered as he punched the ground hard. "Whether you like it or not, I'm going."

Just as Zell was about to leave, Seifer grabbed his shirt from behind from keeping him from going anywhere. 

  
"What the hell Seifer!? You may not care for him, but don't tempt me!" It was evident in Zell's voice that he was ticked off, and was not going to stop.

By now, Seifer lost all patience whatsoever, and decked his ally to the floor. Zell looked up angrily before getting up and throwing a punch swiftly aimed for Seifer's face. The blond dodged it easily, as he kneed Zell in the gut, who fell to the floor instantly. 

  
"What the………hell is your problem?!" Zell asked, between breaths as he clutched his stomach, getting onto one knee.

Seifer merely rolled his eyes. "You ARE stupid, and here I thought that maybe, just maybe, you might have _some_ common sense in your miniscule mind you have there."

Zell's eyes glowed with anger, as he instantly got up into Seifer's face. "My friend is out there in the unknown. You might let him die, but I'm not. Why the fuck can't you understand that?! He could die!"

"That's exactly what I'm talking about." Seifer sneered at him, breathing heavily in Zell's face. "You just rush into things without thinking, not aware of the dangers you might put your pathetic self into."

"I don't give a shit. I'm going." Zell hissed as he began to leave once again, only to be tripped by Seifer's foot.

"I'm not finished speaking, chicken wuss!"

Zell glared at him, but gave Seifer his chance to talk. No matter what he said, he still was going to go.

Seifer eyed Zell for awhile, noticing the determination he had not to be held back. _'Stupid chicken wuss! Of course I care. I don't want anybody to die, but you have to think things through.'_ The gunblader gave an exasperated sigh, "Look, say you DO go out there and look for your friend. But remember, it's **pitch dark** out there – you will have NO clue whatsoever of the things……monsters lurking out there, ready to pounce and rip you apart at a second's notice. We don't know one freaking thing about this place. What good would it do to Irvine if you died trying to save him? Huh? Answer me chicken wuss!"

Not being able to keep eye contact with Seifer, Zell looked away into the distance. As much as he hated to admit it, he was right. It _was_ foolish of him to think he could save Irvine in a place he knew nothing about, where he could get hurt as easily as a small child could. There was no way out – Seifer was right.

Shaking his fist angrily, Zell slammed the ground as hard as he could. _'I HATE being able to do nothing. First it was with **him**, and now Irvine. This sucks!!!!'_

The third member of the party kept silent, letting the two blows off whatever steam they had to, but now he had to jump it. "I hate to say it, but Seifer's right, Zell. We should wait till dawn, or whenever the first light shows, and then look for Irvine. And plus, from what I hear, Irvine is completely capable of taking care of himself, am I right?" 

The blond gunblader looked curiously at Zack, who spoke unexpectedly. _'Huh? Who would have thought – the sorry excuse of a gunblader is useful after all.'_

Being outnumbered two to one, and having his vote slowly changing to the majority, Zell finally gave up his fight. Grudgingly, Zell returned to camp and sat near the fire, not uttering a single word the whole time. Seifer and Zack took a glance towards each other, and for the first time, Seifer smirked. Zack responded with a smile of his own, having relief that he finally could be trusted.

-----*****-----

The dark sky above slowly disappeared and gave way to colors of dim red, yellow and orange, as the sun crawled over the horizon, giving way to a new day of life. This day could be seen as just any ordinary day to any person alive on the planet, but to a select two people, it was not. It certainly was a new day – but a new day not to be faced alone, but with someone else.

The first rays of sunlight crept through the blinds of the dormitory that belonged to a certain commander of the Elite military force known as SeeD. Balamb Garden had chosen to stay in its homelands for the past few months, not sure on what its next destination should be. But any decision made, would be accepted by the students whole-heartedly. 

Faint rays of sunlight stealthily sneaked through the blinds, and shined on a select pair of eyes, that fluttered open slowly. 

Rinoa tried to cover her eyes, but the light shined right through, prompting herself to wake up then. Slowly, the memories of last night came back to her, and she instantly woke up, looking for her knight. 

He was not there.

"No……no……it couldn't be a dream." she whispered out in fear, as she roamed her hands everywhere on the bed, hoping he was just invisible or something. But all she felt was air. Tears now threatened to once again fall from her lovely eyes as she gripped the blanket to her face, inhaling a familiar scent – his scent. "It can't be……"

Just as the first tear was about to drop, she heard a door open. Instantaneously, she whipped her head around, and realized it was the bathroom door opening. And he stepped out. 

  
Squall looked over to Rinoa, who seemed as if she was about to cry again. Frowning, he walked over to her, and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "Relax, I just went to take a shower. I can't stay smelly all day, can I?" he asked with a small smile forming upon his lips. 

  
Rinoa smiled through her tears as she gently shook her head no, and then hugged him once again, as hard as she could, just to make sure he wasn't a figment of her imagination. When she reopened her eyes once again, he was still there. _"Thank you Hyne.'_

Her hug took the wind out of Squall, but he managed to hold on, returning the hug just as feverishly. He understood her pain and confusion at the moment – he wanted to reassure her that he was there. He smiled when he saw her smile. _'At least that's over.'_

They stood there for a couple of moments, without saying anything, just basking in each other's presence. Something both of them had not done for three years. 

Coming back to reality, Squall spoke, "Uh, Rinoa, no offense, but can I now put on my clothes?" he asked rather embarrassingly. 

When she looked up, she noticed that all he had on was a towel covering, well, _him_. Blushing furiously, she nodded quickly, as Squall retrieved his clothes and went back into the bathroom. 

Still blushing, Rinoa found herself daydreaming about Squall, and what was under that towel. _'Ah, its not like you haven't seen it before Rinoa! Get a hang on yourself. Dirty thoughts…..STOP!'_ Rinoa smiled as she let her imagination run along, and widened her smile as time prolonged.

She snapped out of her reverie when the bathroom doors opened once again, revealing Squall. His clothes were definitely worn out, but he had managed to find a clean, white shirt that went underneath his trademark, fur-lined jacket. He still wore the same pants and the necklace of Griever around his neck. His hair was another story. 

With his hair still wet from the shower, it hung down off of Squall's head dreamily. Rinoa found herself holding back the urge to just run up to him and kiss him, running her hands through his brown hair. 

  
Finally, she looked at herself and realized she still wore the same clothes as yesterday. "Squall, I'm going to use your shower if you don't mind, and let me warn you. You **better not** go anywhere while I'm in the bathroom, because if you do………" Rinoa gave a sign as she took her thumb and pretended to slice her neck. Squall gulped, and nodded as Rinoa went past him into the shower. "And no peeking!" she added with a laugh.

Squall smiled warmly. She had finally said a sentence or two normally. That was a good sign. Rinoa was turning to her old self once again. Sighing, he went to sit on his bed, and quickly found himself rethinking the past year. 

**__**

"Wow!"

"Bahamut, if you don't want to die a horrible death, I suggest you shut up and leave me alone for the time being." Squall quickly commanded.

**__**

"Ok, ok. But still……wow." And with that, Bahamut shut himself up, taking his master's threat seriously. 

The knight smiled. "Yes, wow." he whispered as thoughts of Rinoa invaded his mind. 

Another ten minutes passed before Rinoa emerged from the bathroom, fully refreshed, but wearing the same clothes as the previous day. Smiling brightly, she was walking up to Squall, when a thought quickly ran through her head. "Oh my god!"

"What?" Squall asked quickly as he rushed up to her. "What's wrong?"

Rinoa sat down on the bed, banging her head with the pillow constantly. "I don't believe I forgot!"

Squall frowned as she hit herself. "Just spit it out already. What did you forget?"

"It's Kari's birthday! She turns three today! And I haven't gotten her a gift yet!"

"Who?" the commander asked, totally confused.

She looked up at him, totally shocked. _'He forgot. I can't believe he forgot'_ At first, she was angry with him, and was about to hit him, when another thought crossed her mind. _'Well, I guess I don't blame him. After all, who knows what he went through the last three years, although I do intend to find out. It was probably hell. And……………oh my god. I just got the PERFECT idea.'_

Rinoa slyly stared at Squall as the idea formed in her mind. In order for it to work, everything had to go perfectly. But first, he had to know. "Squall, don't you remember the name. K-a-r-i?" she emphasized, trying to mouth it carefully.

He just looked at her, completely lost. _'Kari? I'm pretty sure I've heard that name before…but where?'_ Squall folded his arms as he stared to the ground, trying to remember who exactly this girl was. _'Damn! Now I know I've heard it someplace before, but where? It just sounds all too familiar………'_

At the same exact moment, a certain memory flooded to the front of Squall's mind.

__

Rinoa inhaled slowly and exhaled the same way. "Squall…I'm pregnant."

"DAAAAAMN!" was all Squall could think of. 

  
Rinoa looked at him with shock and quickly got up. "What? What is so DAMN about this?" she asked curiously at him.

"What is so Damn, you ask?" Squall replied in anger; he didn't want to, it just came out that way. "Your pregnant! That's what's so DAMN!" he replied, shocked at his own words. "This child is a curse." he quickly added as he reached for his fallen Lionheart blade on the floor.

"SQUALL LEONHART! How DARE you say that!" Rinoa yelled to him. Squall was in shock, but before he could repudiate, she just kept on going. "This child is a blessing! And if for one minute…"

Squall had thought that it was Dragoon's child, and almost leashed out completely in blind rage. Luckily for him, Rinoa had caught upon his wrong conclusion.

__

"Um, uh………" she started as she slowly walked towards his back.

Once he turned around, she received eyes, once full with compassion for her, now in fierce, deep anger and hatred for Dragoon. "What!?" he asked in anger, not meant for her.

"Uh, umm………" she stuttered.

"Well, spit it out already!" her knight commanded impatiently.

But first she wanted some payback. "Squall, I should slap you at what you just said about **our** baby. If for one minute…."

"What the hell do you mean, **our** baby?!" he roared back into the air, not wanting to yell at her.

  
Rinoa eyes flashed in anger. "You know you idiot!! The one you and I produced!! On that night of the celebration…"

"You………an………and………I?" Squall managed to choke out as he fell back to the ground on his knees.

Squall blinked back to reality but quickly reverted back to his daydream, as another memory reminded him of the facts.

__

His angel looked into her knight's eyes with confusion. "Kari?"

Squall merely smiled as he lightly kissed her lips. "Yeah, Kari. That's **IF** the baby is a girl."

He stared at Rinoa in disbelief, as all the evidence he had just witnessed pointed to one thing. Kari was Rinoa's child – **_his_** daughter. "I……I…I have a……daughter?" he whispered out in a voice, that if Rinoa was not holding him up, she would have not heard.

His angel merely smiled at him as she helped him over to the bed, where he abruptly sat down, trying to absorb what new information he had found out. "I have a daughter. I can't believe I forgot."

  
Rinoa rubbed Squall's back tenderly. "It's ok Squall. I understand. But the more important thing right now is that you know that you are a father."

  
"A father?" Squall asked, as if the word was completely foreign to him.

  
"Yes." she replied back, shedding tears of joy at the same time. "And now that you know, I got a plan that will reunite both of you."

Squall stared at Rinoa as a small smile crept upon her lips. She had an idea – whether he would like it or not, would be another question. Slowly, she relayed her idea onto Squall, who just nodded his agreement, not really knowing what was happening. 

  
However, when she finished telling her idea, Squall was not completely positive about it. "I don't know Rinoa. What if she……" Squall began to say, but was cut short by Rinoa.

"Relax Squall. I know her, and she'll love it……and you." She gave Squall a quick kiss on the lips before heading to the door. "Well? What in the world are you waiting for? A written invitation. C'mon already!"" she commanded with a mischievous smile, waiting for Squall to move.

He stared at her with a confused gaze, then reluctantly sighed. He got up and decided to follow through with her plan. The only part was, what in the world was he going to do.

-----*****-----

Quistis watched Selphie as she fed Kari gently, giggling with her every now and then. It was the child's birthday today, and there was still no sign of Rinoa anywhere. She was starting to get worried. It was not Rinoa's style to miss out of her only child's special day.

Selphie took a glance at her friend, and sighed. "Look Quistis, I'm sure Rinoa had to do something last night that was pretty important. That's why she left Kari with us. I bet you she'll walk through those doors in the next ten minutes."

The instructor quickly snapped out of her reverie as she nodded with the brunette. "Yeah, I guess I'm worrying over nothing. Well……at least Kari loved our presents. She won't even let go of yours, Selph." Selphie smiled and nodded. What Kari had in her small hands was a small little music box and played various melodies and tunes, _including Eyes On Me_, which was ironically, Kari's favorite, because she kept on playing it over and over again. Quistis had given Kari a light blue dress that went down to her knees, only to be worn on special occasions. Unfortunately, Kari threw that rule out the window and had it on now.

"Where's mommy?" the child asked suddenly.

"Don't worry Kari. She said she had to do something. She'll be here soon." Selphie replied cheerfully, giving the child another spoonful of cereal.

"Kay Aunty Sephy. I can't wait to see her present. I know it will be the best!" Quistis and Selphie smiled, agreeing with her. 

Another couple of minutes passed when Quistis finally spotted Rinoa entering the cafeteria. The instructor smiled as she waved over to her friend, who was looking around a bit. For some odd reason, she went back around the corner, only to come back a minute later. _'Hmm, I wonder what that was for?'_

Finally, the girl in blue walked over to the table cheerfully……a little too cheery for her. "She seems to be in a **very** good mood today." Quistis whispered over to Selphie.

"Duh! It's Kari's birthday." the brunette replied in a matter-of-factly tone. 

  
However, the instructor was not convinced, but shrugged it off as her imagination.

  
"Happy Birthday, baby!" the mother exclaimed joyfully as she ran over, opening her arms for a hug. 

"MOMMY!" Kari yelled as she ran over to her mother, accepting the hug. Rinoa was raining kisses over Kari's face, when the official three-year-old was getting impatient. "Mommy, my present please!" she asked as she extended her arms, waiting for something to be placed into her hands.

Rinoa pouted. "Already? I was hoping to go to Balamb for a fun day, and then give you your present later."

"No no no no no no no no! I want it nooooow." Kari exclaimed in a tantrum.

Rinoa smiled brightly as she gave a quick wink to Quistis and Selphie, both who were confused on why she just did that. "Ok baby." By this time, the crowd in the cafeteria had oddly turned their attention towards them, waiting to see what Rinoa got for Kari this year. Last year, the young mother drove into the cafeteria with a miniature power wheel car. It was a very funny sight to behold.

"Now Kari. I want you to look over there, at the entrance. Keep looking, and I will be back with your present."

"It's THAT big?" Kari asked in awe.

Rinoa thought a bit. "Umm….yep. Now be a good girl and wait patiently for just one more minute." Kari nodded fiercely as she watched her mother go around the corner once again.

  
"What do you think it is?" Quistis asked Selphie.

"Maybe it's a…………pony! Wouldn't that be super cool, Quisty." 

"Perhaps…" the instructor replied dryly. _'What could it be?'_

All eyes had turned towards the entrance and Rinoa had finally appeared once again, pulling on something that couldn't be seen from any angle by anyone. 

  
"Wow, if she's having that much difficulty with it, it **has** to be a pony. What better thing could it be?" Selphie asked curiously. Quistis rolled her eyes and continued watching Rinoa struggle with whatever it was.

Finally, it happened. Rinoa fell down to the floor and brought something down along with her. Quickly, the figure got up, and that's when everybody, especially Quistis and Selphie stood shocked. The figure was a person, but his back was facing them, concealing his face. Rinoa had laughed suddenly as she gave the figure a hug. 

The figure turned around………

………and everybody held their breath.

"Squall?"

-----*****-----

"Finally! Daybreak! About time." Zell said as he stretched. "YO! Seifer! Zack! Get your lazy asseeezz…………"

  
Seifer had cut him off. "We were up over an hour ago. You're the one who slept in, chicken wuss!"

Zell glared at Seifer, and pleadingly looked for help at Zack, who had backed away with his hands up. "Sorry Zell. But you can't go against fact." 

The martial-artist slouched in defeat. "Great, two on one."

"Did you already forget about Irvine?" the blond gunblader asked in a hurry. "Cuz if you did, that'd be a real shame."

"Hell NO! We got to go and look for him now! If he hasn't come back yet, something is definitely up, and he must have found something………something dangerous."

Seifer rolled his eyes as he quickly cleaned up camp, leaving no trace that there even was a camp. "Ok, let's move out."

Nobody seemed to be questioning Seifer's commands, and Zell and Zack nodded, heading towards the end of the ruined village. 

The three men walked silently, eyes shifting in every direction imaginable, looking out for anything remotely out of the ordinary. 

Suddenly, a crack-like sound reached their ears, both Seifer and Zack unsheathing their gunblades, and Zell with his fists up. 

"Any ideas on what it might be?" Zell asked in a whisper.

Hordes of orc-like monsters seemed to arise from every single spot imaginable. They kept sprouting up, until Zell roughly estimated nearly fifty of them. Neither monster nor human moved an inch, waiting for the other to make the first move. When Zell eyed one of the monsters picking up its feet, he unleashed a power Firaga spell towards it.

"Lets…get…it…OOONNN!"

****

Author's Notes: Hey readers. Yeah, I know. I'm late in updating, and I'm sorry for you guys who were anxiously awaiting to see what happens next. I know how you feel. 

Anyway, here is the next installment. There is more Squall - Rinoa fluff in this chapter. But I'll be warning you readers that the next few chapters, the story will get more deep, and the **evil** forces will arise from the shadows more, and stuff like that. I haven't exactly planned out what's going to happen, but it'll be good. But don't worry, Squall/Rinoa relationship will still be there.

I'd like to thank your patience and reviews! It has helped me a lot. I will promise to try to update a bit faster, but that all depends on inspiration and me not getting writer's block. As always, **LEAVE A REVIEW! ^_^ **Thanks.

Until next chapter!


	8. Commitments and Promises

****

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 8 or its characters. They are ALL copyrighted by Squaresoft. ALL the chapters in this fic follow the same disclaimer!!!! I just own my created characters.

**************************************

Chapter 7 – Commitments and Promises

**************************************

"Die you ugly freak of nature!" the martial artist yelled as he casted out a Fira spell upon a sole orc, obliterating it from existence. "That will tell you not to mess with me!" However, as soon as one orc was down, two quickly replaced it. "What the hell!?"

Seifer, in the meantime, was slashing his way through a number of monsters that surrounded him in the middle a tight circle. "This…doesn't…seem…right." he muttered to no one in particular, all the while swinging his gunblade here and there. "Why the hell attack us now when they had all night to do it? It just doesn't make sense at all!"

"Don't ask questions, just fight!" Zack timidly commanded as he defended himself against an onslaught of three orcs that had suddenly jumped into that air for an aerial attack. Before anything else could occur, the same three orcs had suddenly fell back down to the ground, as if an invisible arrow had shot them through the heart. A small grin appeared on Zack's face as he went to hunt down remaining monsters. 

The three of them continued to fight for what seemed like hours. The two gunbladers were showing obvious signs of fatigue, as the number of orcs did not seem to diminish. Zell, on the other hand, was running low on his stock of magic he came with, and found himself using his fists more often – wanting to conserve what little magic he lad left.

"Why the hell are these guys not diminishing!? I must have killed at least fifty!" Zell yelled out as he squared another orc in the gut.

  
The blond warrior lashed out again with his gunblade, splitting another enemy right in half from the stomach area, with green blood spurting all over his white trenchcoat. "For once in my life chicken wuss, I am as lost as you are!"

Unknown to them, Zack seemingly had no questions or comments to add, until he pointed out something. "We have to retreat. There is no way we will win if they keep coming like this, and………"

"Hell no!!!!" Zell yelled as Zack off completely, issuing a huge Firaga blast at five monsters in front of him. "We **have** to look for Irvine!" _'I am **not** going to lose another friend.'_

At that moment, Zell spotted a monster with Irvine's hat. _'Oh my god……they got him.'_

Seifer grimaced as he unleashed a barrage of swipes toward a single orc, trying to release his frustration. _'Damn it! As much as I hate retreating, the sorry excuse of a gunblader is right.´ _"Yo Zell! Remember what I said before! You die, and it's all over!" 

"NO!" Zell punched the monster square in the face. However, it just retaliated back with punches of its own. "I will not…leave…Irvine…here!" he yelled, while defending himself. 

"Whatever, your choice!" Seifer replied back. "C'mon Zacky boy, let's get back to the Storm!"

"I'm right behind you Seifer!" the black-haired man shouted out, slicing another monster before running towards the blue airship.

"I can't……I shouldn't……I won't……" Zell muttered to himself as he found himself in the middle of a tight circle of monsters around himself. "DAMN YOU SEIFER! METEOR KICK!" The martial artist's anger fueled his special attack as he jumped into the air, and dove straight down, right into the heart of the circle, coming down with such a force that it was obliterating any monster within a radius of twenty meters. Zell looked around, satisfied look upon his features, that is, until more orcs seemingly formed into existence from thin air. "I'll be back, Irvine. I _swear_ it!" With that, Zell quickly grabbed Irvine's hat and retreated with the other two to the Storm.

Zack hastily entered the blue colored airship, followed closely by his gunblade partner. The blond warrior was about to take off without Zell, thinking he was not going to come, when he saw the martial artist running towards the ship. With a sigh of relief, Seifer waited those extra few seconds. Finally, totally breathless, Zell entered the storm, and only a split second had passed before Seifer ignited the main engines, lifting the small airship off the ground instantly. 

The trio looked out of the windows to the ground, only to see a swarm of orcs that covered all of what was Shumi Village. Zell slumped onto a chair, breathless. 

  
"And here I was beginning to think you were as stupid as I thought you were, chicken wuss." Seifer commented while driving the Storm away from the battlefield.

"Seifer, for once in your life, just shut the hell up! I am **not** in the mood to argue." Zell commanded fiercely continued to stare out the window, lost in his own thoughts. "They got him guys. Irvine _never,_ and I do repeat, **_never_ **takes off this hat. Something must have happened.'

Seifer let out a surprised gasp as he cursed loudly. _'Well, at least Zell's here. That's what matters at the moment. Wait a freakin' second. I'm not supposed to be feeling this……….'_ However, Seifer's thoughts were interrupted when Zack aroused a serious question.

"Uh guys. Where are we going to head to?"

Almasy took a glance towards Zell, who seemed to not have heard the question at all, and if he did, he didn't show it. "Well, how about Trabia Garden? It's the closest one. And you should know your way around the place, Zacky boy."

Letting out a sigh, Zack took the adjacent seat next to Seifer as he solemnly looked out of the window as well. "I'm not so sure if Trabia is our best bet at the moment. Sure, we could go there, but now I'm not so sure that it's the safest place. With these monsters swarming around here up north, Trabia might be under attack. The SeeDs over there will be able to protect the Garden for the time being. Us going there will just complicate things, with reconstruction going on there and all."

__

'Oh yeah. I completely forgot that missiles hit Trabia Garden some years ago. I'm still surprised that they haven't finished rebuilding, but money is hard to get nowadays.' With that thought in mind, Seifer decided that Zack was right, Trabia was not the best place. He didn't want to go back to Galbadia Garden again – having to report a failure was not what Galbadia wanted. "Then it's off to Balamb. With the fuel we have left, we'll have just enough to reach it. And if I initiate the power engines, we can halve the time it would take, reaching there by in a couple of hours, _at the latest_."

All Seifer received was a slight nod from Zack and a weird sound from Zell. Taking both as a "yes," Seifer brought out the power engines and raced towards Balamb with the urgent news.

-----*****-----

__

'It couldn't be him, could it?' was the only thought that was racing through the minds of both Selphie and Quistis as their brains were trying to assimilate what their eyes were telling them. 

  
Right there, right at the entrance of the Balamb Garden SeeD Military Academy, stood the Commander, Squall Leonhart, next to his girlfriend Rinoa no less. Both Selphie and Quistis thought it was just a sick daydream that Hyne planted in their minds all of a sudden. Both women pinched themselves, and were even more shocked that they still saw Squall. 

"Quisty……are you seeing……what I'm seeing?" Selphie asked in a scared whisper.

"Only if your seeing out lost friend……brother." the instructor replied back, in the same level of voice. 

Both women stood still, and watched the current event unfold itself, in both fear and excitement.

The lone wolf looked around warily as he kept his eyes moving along the crowd. He didn't want to keep his stare at one place for too long, just in case he would catch someone's eyes. He would not know what in the world to say. 

A sudden pull on his arm brought him back to reality, and that was when he realized where exactly he was. Every person in the garden _had_ to be in the cafeteria at that moment, because it looked quite crowded. 

__

'I can't do this.' Squall told himself and started to retreat when a light, yet very attractive force stopped him from going. Rinoa. One glance at her told him that if he left now, in front of her, it would kill her. Not literally, but emotionally. She seemed to be looking forward to this a lot. _'I can't do that to her. Damn my luck. Why did it have to run out now?'_

Squall did not want to come back to Balamb – he did not want to show himself again. He knew he would have to leave them all again, and maybe forever that time. That was why he didn't want to show himself. Something had occurred to prevent him from showing himself. And now…now that he did show himself to everyone, leaving them all, especially the angel right next to him, would be next to impossible. 

Ignoring that thought for the time being, Squall drew a deep breath and let himself be dragged by Rinoa deeper into the cafeteria. They walked passed many people, some of them SeeDs, and some of them in midst of their training, and some of them who only thought Squall was some kind of legend, a myth and had never actually existed. Keeping his focus on the floor, he really had no clue where Rinoa was leading him to, except that his destination was towards his child, his daughter.

The idea of him having a daughter was completely foreign. It may have been in another language, and he would have understood it better that way. Thoughts of having a child inevitably brought his thoughts to Laguna, his father. _'I wonder how the old oaf is doing?'_

From the pull he was receiving, it seemed that Rinoa was quite eager to see this event happen. _'If only I knew what I was going to say to her, then I would relax a bit. But I am totally clueless. What if I mess up? What if…?'_

At that moment, he had brought his head up unconsciously and found himself staring at two girls. No, two beautiful women now, who were staring right back at him. Selphie and Quistis. He had completely forgotten about them. Now this event would be twice as hard. Knowing Selphie, he was in for a hell of a punishment from the feisty girl. However, Zell and Irvine were not with them. _'Where did they go?'_

Finally, Squall felt himself stop. Clearly, they had reached wherever Rinoa had wanted to go to. And Squall only found himself looking towards Selphie and Quistis. He gave them a slight smile to them – a smile that showed so much to the two of them, who knew how to decipher its meaning. He found his two friends teary eyed and smiling brightly back. He fought the urge to walk up to them and hug them. He still had a reputation to protect, despite the fact Rinoa already broke down that wall entirely.

"Heey! That is the guy who saved me from that huge, scary monster, mommy!" a voice from below suddenly spoke out. 

An angry frown appeared upon Rinoa's features at the thought of her daughter being in danger. She would have to get the details from Squall later.

Instantly, Squall brought his gaze down, and saw that same child who he rescued a couple of days ago. Now that he had enough light to see her features, shock was the only thing that registered on his face. He knew everyone could see it, but still made no effort to hide the expression on his face.

Quickly, he took a quick glance at Rinoa and then back at the little girl. The resemblance was too great. How the hell did he not notice it before? This was Rinoa's child – Kari. No wonder her eyes were familiar, _they were **his.**_

"Why did you bring this guy, mommy? Where is _my_ present!?" the little girl asked, losing patience.

All the mother could do was smile. "Baby, this **is** your present." she answered, pointing towards Squall.

Right then and there, every single person in that room smiled as the realization dawned upon them what this year's present was. They knew.

"Huh?" Kari asked, utterly confused.

Squall gave a nervous smile towards Rinoa, telling her that it was not going to work. Rinoa glared back at him and then looked lovingly towards Kari. "Well baby, remember a couple months ago when you asked why your daddy wasn't here, and if he's going to come back anytime soon?" Rinoa paused between her story, waiting for Kari to nod. And she did. "Well, I have something to tell you. This guy is your daddy."

To Squall, Kari could have passed as a statue; she didn't even look like she was breathing. Already, beads of sweat were running down his face, anxious of his daughter's reaction; waiting for her rejection of the fact that she wouldn't accept him as her father. However, it never happened.

"You're my daddy?" Kari had asked in a hopeful voice.

Once again, the commander took another glance towards Rinoa, who seemed to be urging him to say something. The same gesture was also coming from Quistis and Selphie. Taking a deep breath, Squall squatted onto his knees, almost coming face to face with the little angel. "Yeah, that would be me."

Kari hesitantly lifted up her little hand. At first, Squall had thought that Kari was going to punch him or something or the sort. The thought of rejection had never left his mind. Once again, he was proven wrong as Kari slowly traced Squall's scar with her finger, all the way from the top to the bottom, which was to the bridge of his nose. Then slowly, she brought her hand down further, stopping at his lips.

Then, she hugged him.

Instantly, the crowd that stood watching shouted out as they applauded loudly for the united family. 

__

'Forget my freakin' image! She's more important!' Squall slowly wrapped his arms around his child as he completed the embrace, hugging her back. Two solitary tears could be seen coming from his eyes as he picked up the child in his arms, still holding on to her and the hug.

Tears of joy sprung out from Rinoa like an never-ending fountain, as she clapped herself, all the while rubbing the tears out of her eyes, trying to keep focus upon the two reasons why she lived.

Seeing Rinoa out of the picture, Squall shifted Kari, who still clung to him like glue to one arm, and motioned for Rinoa to join them. Never giving it a second though, Rinoa ran into Squall's embrace as well, completing the family for the first time ever.

The crowd cheered even louder at the three of them. 

Right then and there, Squall made a new commitment. _'No matter what happens next, this is too good to leave. They need me just as much as I need them. No matter what, I can't leave them. No matter what……'_

Bahamut, viewing the whole scenario through Squall's eyes shook his head sadly, hearing his master's thoughts. **_'I hope you can keep that promise, friend. For your sake, I hope you do.'_**

-----*****-----

"C'mon chicken wuss! Can't you run any faster?!"

The team that consisted of Zell, Zack and Seifer had finally reached Balamb Garden, and wasted no time to report of Headmaster Cid. 

"What the hell Seifer!? I'm tired as hell. I'm running as fast as I can!" Zell replied angrily.

"Well, if you can't run faster, Irvine might be as good as dead!" Seifer retorted back as they finally reached the elevator. Immediately, he pushed the third floor button as soon as Zack and Zell entered. 

They stood in silence as the elevator slowly made its way to the top floor of the academy. Nobody wanted to speak, and plus, they didn't have anything happy to say. Anything said would just bring back thoughts of how the three of them cowardly left Irvine by himself. Zell unconsciously gripped Irvine's hat tighter as the elevator doors finally opened, revealing the door to Cid's office. 

Rushing in there quickly, a surprised Cid looked up to see not four, but three people, and earlier than he expected them. "Where is Irvine?"

"They got him." Zell sadly reported as he held up Irvine's hat.

Cid gave a shocked reaction. "Who got him?"

"The monsters, sir………they looked like orcs." Zack quietly answered.

"Orcs?!" Cid asked, very surprised. 

Seifer nodded as Cid impatiently urged for details. The three of them slowly relayed the details to the headmaster of exactly what had happened since their landing in Shumi Village: the arrival of Zack, disappearance of Irvine and the horde of orc-type monsters, attacking them just that morning, and not in the previous night.

Cid gave out an exasperated sigh, "Oh……Hyne." 

There was dead silence between the four men as they all waited for someone else to say something. 

Finally, after several minutes of quietness, Zell erupted, "What the hell are we going to do Headmaster?!"

If it had been another situation, Cid would have chastised Zell for using vulgar language in front of him. But he knew of Zell's emotional care for his friends, and knew somewhat of the things going through the martial artist's mind. 

Slowly, Cid walked over to the intercom, and fumbled around with it until he finally accomplished to turn in out. 

__

"Attention Balamb Garden students. Team Ultimecia, report to my office immediately. Once again, Team Ultimecia, report to my office immediately. Thank you."

"We can't involve the girls in this dangerous situation!" Zell yelled again.

This time, Cid made no move and continued to stare out the window. _'My suspicions have been confirmed.'_

****

Author's Notes: Ok, let me first apologize for the late update of this chapter into Reality of Illusion. I just didn't know where I wanted this story to go and I had doubts while writing this. But this finished product, I am happy how it turned out because it leaves me with many options that I already have in mind for the next chapter, which I hope to finish faster. 

Anyway, as you can see, the "family" is finally reunited for the first time. A very happy moment. For you guys who are looking for some action, I put in some action with Seifer, Zell and the new guy Zack. 

The storyline is going to get deeper as the this fic progresses and hopefully more interesting.  
And I would like to thank all my readers and their reviews! Means SOOO much!

As always, please **LEAVE A REVIEW! ^_^. **It would be much appreciated. Till the next chapter.


	9. The Mission

****

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 8 or its characters. They are ALL copyrighted by Squaresoft. ALL the chapters in this fic follow the same disclaimer!!!! I just own my created characters.

************************

Chapter 8 – The Mission

************************

"You wool-headed idiot! What about us?!" Selphie has asked angrily.

Rinoa reluctantly released Squall from her hug to turn to her friend. Even though he was her husband, her love, her life, she had been a bit greedy. After all, Squall did have friends, whether that was believable or not. Friends he grew up with since he was a little child, even though he did not know it till only a couple of years ago.

  
"Ahem!" the yellow-clothed girl added.

With a quick, yet slight smile forming upon his lips, the commander pried Kari of off himself and handed her to Rinoa. The little girl gave a slight gasp as she felt herself torn away from her father. She had so much she wanted to ask, but in a blink of an eye, she had forgotten everything.

By now, Squall was tapping his foot impatiently. "Well, are you going to give me a hug or are you just going to stand there with your mouths hitting the floor?"

  
_'A joke!? Wow, he's changed completely. Not even before he was separated from us would he crack out a joke.'_ Rinoa gave Squall another intriguing gaze, making sure he didn't notice it. _'I suppose he's cherishing with what he is suddenly blessed with all over again.'_

Before she knew it, Rinoa found herself jumping out of the way as Selphie ran full force over to Squall, toppling them both to the ground. "You….stupid…idiot….I should kill you…..again….making us worry like that……stupid…" was all Rinoa could make out from what Selphie's mouth. The young girl had started crying suddenly, not holding back anything. Clearly, Squall was as lost as herself, but gradually wrapped his arms around Selphie, whispering words of reassurance. 

After a couple of minutes, Selphie reluctantly let go of Squall, only to be seen sobbing. Offering a sympathetic smile, Squall once again hugged Selphie once more, before setting Selphie on a nearby chair. This time, it was Selphie's turn to smile.

Unfortunately for Squall, he went through the same thing with Quistis, who took a more formal approach to hugging her friend, and not the tackle-hug as Selphie before her. 

The intercom suddenly beeped on:

__

"Attention Balamb Garden students. Team Ultimecia, report to my office immediately. Once again, Team Ultimecia, report to my office immediately. Thank you."

Rinoa, Quistis and Selphie suddenly had a shocked looked upon their faces as Squall looked worriedly over to them. "Ultimecia? Wha!? What's that about?"

"Whenever Cid says 'Team Ultimecia,' he is usually referring to the team who beat Ultimecia. And plus, this usually means something huge is going to happen, something very bad." Selphie replied as she looked over to Rinoa and Quistis, who just nodded at her.

All at once, the three girls hurriedly ran out of the cafeteria, leaving Squall and Kari with each other. By now, the crowd in the cafeteria also seemed to have an atmosphere of panic in the air, but everyone eventually returned to their own conversations. 

Both father and daughter stared stupidly towards where the girls had run off to for a couple of minutes until Kari poked Squall on the leg. Almost immediately, he turned all of his attention towards his daughter. "Yeah, what's up?"

"Is that a……gumball?" she asked curiously, wide-eyed as well.

"Huh?"

"That!" Kari emphasized as she pointed to the sheath of his gunblade.

__

'Ohhh…she meant gunblade.' Squall chuckled to himself. "Yep, but it's called a _gun-blade._" he said, trying to emphasize the word so she could understand it. 

Kari nodded in awe. "Oh yea……Unca Irvine told me about that. Can I see it?"

__

'Yeah, where in the world are Zell and Irvine. I haven't seen them around yet.' Squall stood hesitant for a moment at Kari's question. _'Should I actually show her it? She probably hasn't seen anything bigger than a kitchen knife, and I don't want to ruin her innocence now. Plus, Rinoa would probably kill me as well.'_

Reaching another decision, Squall swiftly and easily picked up the lightweight Kari and perched her on top of his shoulders. "Why don't we go to where your mother and her friends ran off too?"

Kari hit Squall on his head. "You're avoiding my question. Everybody else does that too."

Once again, the commander chuckled out loud, enjoying yet another laugh. "I guess you're smarter than I thought. Maybe some other time, ok? I promise."

The three-year-old girl smiled brightly. "As long as you promised, then kay."

__

'So beautiful, so precious, so innocent. Something I lost a long time ago. She's so much like her mother. No wonder I took an instant liking to her.' With that last thought in mind, Squall walked off to where the other girls ran off to moments before, with Kari rambling on about not receiving a birthday present. Squall just kept on smiling.

-----*****-----

"But Cid! We can't let the girls get involved in this. If it really is Dragoon, it is WAAY too dangerous." Zell stammered once again, hoping to change the headmaster's opinion.

"And I suppose Ultimecia wasn't dangerous, chicken wuss?" Seifer angrily commented back. "Look, we are going to need all the help we can get with this. If this Dragoon guy took down Squall, then we're in for a huge battle here! I know you're afraid of losing them, hell, we all are. But come to your senses Zell!"

Zell and Zack stared at Seifer as if they were seeing another person totally. Not in a milllion years would Zell have imagined Seifer would have given some kind of speech of the sort. Never. However, as much as Zell wanted to argue, once again, Seifer was right. They needed help, and fast. Instead of saying something, Zell chose to stay quiet. Seifer took his silence as acceptance.

Only moments later, the three girls stormed into the headmaster's office, seemingly out of breath. "Sir! We came as fast as we can. What's the problem?" Quistis asked almost all to quickly. Rinoa and Selphie also seemed to have the same question in their mind.

Unaware too all in the office, Squall and Kari chose to stay outside the door.

The three girls stared at Cid expectantly, but the headmaster chose not to move from his spot. They then turned towards Zell and expected the story out of him, but strangely to them, he stayed quiet as well. It wasn't until when Seifer stepped forward, they actually saw him there.

"Seifer!" the three of them gasped. 

Glumly, Seifer walked up to them. "I'll start from the beginning." 

Slowly and carefully, Seifer relayed the details upon the three female SeeDs. From the pictures and letter from a devestated Shumi Village, to the investigation, the arrival of Zack, the disappearance of Irvine – causes unknown – to the hordes of monsters they fought and finally to the retreat.

"And this is where we stand at the moment." Seifer stated, adjusting his gunblade to a more comfortable position. "The bottom line, we need more help with this situation. And with our scarce knowledge about Dragoon, we are in for one hell of a battle sooner of later. Otherwise, this planet as we know it, will be turn upside down in a matter of hours, or whatever."

-----*****-----

Squall stared at the floor with blazing, cold eyes. He heard the whole story from Seifer, and without a doubt, it was Dragoon's work. He had witnessed all of that happening first-hand in the past. And now that it happened to one of his closest friends, angered him to no limit. 

Luckily for him, Kari had fallen asleep midway in the story, just missing out on the part where Irvine was missing. If she heard that, it would be no doubt she would be asking questions, questions that Squall could not answer without lying. And there was no way he could lie to her. Secondly, if Kari had seen Squall's face at that moment, she would have been terrified. Instead of seeing a friendly face, she would have seen a face full of anger, and eyes that did not glow their usual baby blue tone, but strangely and mysteriously, a deep oceanic, dark blue color.

__

'It's time I go up.'

-----*****-----

"Irv…..Irv……Irvine's…gone?" Selphie asked, shuddering and sobbing at the same time. If not for Rinoa and Quistis, the girl would have collasped to the ground at that moment. Teary-eyed as well, Rinoa and Quistis looked at each other for some kind of sign or answer. They nodded. 

"Of course we'll help." Quistis answered to the three of them. "But even if we do, from the story you told us Seifer, even with our help, we're done for. If monsters keep coming on forever, even our Guardian Forces will eventually become exhausted and us too. The question that I am aiming for is what are we going to be aiming for in this mission. Rescuing Irvine is a no-brainer, but after that? We are totally lost on what to do."

Seifer nodded. "I know that Quisty…" Rinoa's ears seemed to be the only one who picked up on the nickname for Quistis. Everyone else seemed to be concentrating on what he was going to say. Quickly, Rinoa chided herself for worrying about trifle matters, and returned her attention to Seifer. "…and my only answer to that is we'll deal with that when the time comes. Hell, I'm no Squall, and I did not ask to be picked the leader of this mission, but……"

At that exact moment, everyone diverted their attention towards the opening door. They all wondered the same thing. _"Who in the world is that?"_ No one, however, noticed the relieved look upon Cid's features, and the sudden bright smile upon Rinoa. 

In walked Squall………holding a sleeping Kari nestled warmly and comfortably in his arms.

Quietly, Squall closed the door and turned around, only to find everybody staring at him. Still not used to having so much attention put upon him, he averted his eyes anywhere but to the people. "What in the world are you guy staring at?"

Zell's mouth instantly went dry upon seeing Squall. He was the **exact** last thing he expected to walk through that door. Hell, even if an elephant walked in, he wouldn't be more surprised. Slowly, Zell walked over to Squall and hesitantly put a hand on his shoulder. "Your……your alive?"

Squall cracked a smile. "Is that a bad thing?"

Rinoa had trouble stifling her giggle. _'Yet another joke by Squall. What is the world coming to?'_

Zell still had trouble accepting what his eyes were showing him. "But……how? I mean, not that I'm complaing Squall, and no offense to you Rinoa, but how? I **saw** the moon blow up, and there was **no way** you could have gotten out of there alive. And even if you did, how would you breathe in space? The Lunar Rings only allowed us to breathe within the moon's atmosphere. How Squall? How do we know that you're not an imposter?"

Squall kept his gaze at Zell till he could not keep his gaze at him any longer, and quickly averted his eyes toward the ground once again. His friend had every right to ask those questions. If he was in the same spot, Squall knew he would ask the same exact ones as well. But truth be told, he was not ready to answer any of them, but he knew he was _not_ an imposter. As to proving that, he had trouble with.

"Zell, I'm sorry, but I can't answer any of those questions about my past, but I can assure you that I'm the real thing." Squall simply stated as he gazed towards the child in his arms.

Rinoa, shocked at Zell's words, quickly came to Squall's defense. "Zell, I know he's the real thing. I can't explain it in words, but……its just this feeling I get when I'm around him. It's the same as it always was before. He **is** Squall."

A wide-eyed Zell eventually nodded towards Rinoa. Turning back to Squall, he rubbed his spit on his hand and rubbed it on his pants before offering it for a handshake. "Sorry about that. But I'm really glad your back, and eventually, I'm getting the whole story from you, my friend."

Smiling, Squall warmly accepted the handshake. _'That……came out different that I expected it to be.'_ Normally, he would have expected Zell to be the jolliest out of all of them, next to Selphie. But here he was, not jolly at all. _'I guess Irvine's disappearance has something to do with it. Now speaking of that……'_ "You were saying that when you were fighting those monsters, they seemed never-ending, right?"

Zell quickly looked over to Seifer and Zack, who simply nodded. "Yeah, puberty boy. They just kept on coming, no matter how many we took down." Seifer replied.

Squall sighed as he kept his gaze upon Kari. _'She looks so beautiful and innocent sleeping in my arms. I can't stress that enough to myself.'_ Reluctantly, he tore his gaze away from his daughter and stared at everyone else.

Rinoa blinked twice before she gasped. She seemed to be the only one who noticed Squall's different eye color. _'That is **not** the color of his eyes. Why are they dark blue?'_ That was something she was going to have to ask him about later.

The commander blinked, his eyes once again returning to the normal baby blue color. Another small gasp came from Rinoa, but Squall ignored it. "Trust me when I say this guys. But half of those monsters you were fighting were illusions."

"What the hell do you mean illusions?!" Seifer asked angrily. "I swore that I touched every single one of them."

Squall shook his head. "No, you're wrong. If you remember acutely, I can guarantee you that half of them were illusions at least. Don't you remember at least some of your attacks or magic spells going _through_ monsters?"

The eight of them stood there silent, awaiting any remarks from Zack, Zell or Seifer. Eventually, Zack nodded. "He's right. Now that I do think about it, I vaguely remember my gunblade going through some monsters. I thought that I hit them, so I didn't pay any attention to it."

Zell nodded as well. "Yeah, even some of my magic spells went through some of them."

"That is how Dragoon likes to work." Squall replied. "He uses his powers to create illusions of his monsters so he won't have to send as many as he should have. His goal is to confuse his enemy with illusions and then strike with the real thing when the enemy is lured deep enough into his trap. Luckily for you guys, you realized quick enough that the monsters were not diminishing, as they should have, so he couldn't do any damage to you guys."

"And what about Irvine then?" Zell asked all too quickly. Selphie's ears perked up instantly.

Squall sighed as he once again looked towards his daughter. "To tell you the truth, I honestly don't know what could have happened. The fact that he didn't contact you or anything could prove, that he too, saw some kind of illusion, but unlike you guys, he fell for it and now Dragoon has him. But that's only a guess. That fact of the matter is that Dragoon **does** have him, either way."

Seifer sighed impatiently, "So what the hell do we do puberty boy?"

Walking towards a nearby wall, Squall leaned against it and adjusted Kari more comfortably in his arms. "First of, before we go on a rescue mission, it is important to realize the power that Dragoon has at his fingertips. I know for a fact that the Sorceress's Powers he assimilated from Rinoa has not adjusted to his body completely, meaning he can go out of control and hopefully do some damage to himself, like what happened back on the moon." 

Taking a deep breath, he continued, "You **must**, and I can't stress this enough, **must** learn the difference between an illusion and reality. That will prove to be the ultimate factor between your life and your death."

"Makes sense." Zack commented, although nobody really paid attention, for everyone was in his or her own reverie of some sort. 

"Then let's go!" the all too excited martial-artist yelled as he made his way towards the door. 

"Hold it right there, Zell Dincht."

Zell stopped in his tracks as he turned around. Everyone had completely forgotten about the Headmaster, and his sudden outburst snapped everyone back to reality. "No one is going anywhere today."

"But…….." Zell and Selphie both started to protest.

Cid held up his hand and both of them stood silent. "Look. Zell – I'm pretty sure you and Zack and Seifer are still exhausted from today's predicament. And plus, evening is already setting in. By the time you get there, nightfall will already have settled itself comfortably. And I don't want you guys to go rushing blindly into whatever trap Dragoon has. You guys are the best Balamb has to offer, and more importantly, each of you are like my children in your own sort of way. I don't want to lose any more of you……again." he stated, looking at Squall especially as he completed his sentence. "And you Selphie, I know how much Irvine means to you, but you have to understand – your no help to him if you get captured as well. It will be best for all of us to take this slowly and carefully. That way, we'll hopefully be aware of everything."

After Cid's speech, no one dared to speak up, leaving each person to think of what they would do in the morning.

"I expect all of you to rest tonight and be out of here early in the morning in the Ragnorak." Cid continued. "And if there aren't any other questions, you are dismissed."

After Cid's order of dismissal, nobody moved. Everyone stood their ground. No one wanted to move. Something did not feel right. For some reason, it was not right for them to be _resting easily_ for the night while Irvine was somewhere out in the unknown, who knew what was happening to him. However, finally, after what seemed like eternal minutes that had gone by, Seifer was the first one to exit the room, followed next by Zack. Selphie exited next, still choking back sobs, followed closely by Quistis, who kept a strong grip on the brunette's arm, in fear for her collapsing. Letting out a huge sigh, Zell reluctantly left. 

Rinoa, Squall and Kari were the only one's left. 

"If you don't mind, I would like to speak with you two privately." Cid asked in a monotonic voice.

Almost immediately, Rinoa walked over to Squall and rested her head on his shoulder. "I'm scared Squall."

"Don't be. As always, just stay close to me and everything will work out fine." was his only answer. 

Rinoa smiled inwardly. "Is it ok if **we** spend the night with you?"

It was Squall's turn to smile. She had no need to ask that. "Of course."

"Ahem!" Cid coughed out softly, breaking the intimate conversation between the couple short. "I don't mean to intrude here, but I asked to you two to stay because I want to remind you, even though I don't see a reason to, that you two out to be extra careful tomorrow. You're not only fighting for yourselves, but you have someone else who wants your safe return as well. I just wanted to clarify that."

Squall nodded, however Rinoa gasped, obviously very shocked at the Headmaster's words. She was no so lenient. "Of course Cid!" she stated rather harshly. "Don't you think I **_know_** that? Not to be rude or anything, but I don't see your place in issuing those words!"

Cid shook his head gravely. "Right now, it seems like common sense, my dear. But believe me, when your out there, in the middle of the battlefield, you tend to forget things, and act on spur of the moment ideas. I just wanted to emphasize to you two _not_ to forget probably the most important person in your lives, who is in Squall's arms right now." After taking a loving look at Kari, Cid once again faced his window, looking out at the main hall as evening was setting in. "Sometimes you feel the need to sacrifice yourself to insure the safety of your loved ones. I just want you to avoid that scenario at **all** costs. Am I not right, Squall?"

Rinoa looked disbelievingly at Squall, who merely nodded. "Headmaster, this time will be different. I swear it."

The Headmaster, strangely, chuckled. "Of course. You may go now."

It took a while for this event to digest into Rinoa, but in the end, it finally hit her. This was the same thing that Squall did back on the moon – sacrificed himself to save _her._ _'Squall's right. This time** will** be different.'_

The couple walked out of the office silently.

Unknown to all of them, Kari **just **fell asleep.

-----*****-----

"Squall?"

"Yea Rinoa?" he replied, while setting Kari down onto the sole bed he had in his dorm room. 

"You know. If we are going to be spending more time with you, I think _you_ should get a bigger room, don't you think?" she asked.

Squall shrugged, not really paying attention to the question. "Yeah, sure."

"Actually, it should be as big at Cid's and Edea's room, because we'll be married and all, right?" she asked, seeing if her love was actually paying attention.

Shrugging once again, Squall replied, "Yeah, su………wait a sec there! Hold up! Marriage!?"

Rinoa grinned, finally getting the attention she wanted, but saddened a moment later at the fact that Squall was so surprised at the idea. "Why? Is there something wrong about it?"

He was left speechless. Rinoa did have a point. It did make sense to get married. Hell, he even suggested it beforehand to. "No……nothing at all." He answered rather apathetically. "It's just, should we really be talking about that when there are other things more important than our own happiness? Like the fate of the world? Or Irvine's well-being?"

Almost at once, Rinoa pouted. _'Damn idiot. He's right. Still, sooner or later, I'll get him to confess that he actually likes the idea of marriage. I can see it in his eyes. Hehe!' _"Yeah, sorry Squall. Your right."

In return, he smiled shortly. "Whatever." he simply stated, lying besides his daughter.

"Oh no! You're not going back to **that** just when you started to open up like a book to me, Mister Leonhart!" Giggling, softly, Rinoa took the spot on the other side of Kari as she stared into her lover's eyes. "I'm scared about tomorrow Squall. What's going to happen?" she whispered very softly. 

Rinoa could hear him breathe in heavily, and exhale the same way. "I don't know Rinoa. Honestly, I don't know. Even with all that's happened in my past, I still don't know anything about the power Dragoon has at his fingertips. Just remember what I said earlier, and everything…hopefully…will work out fine."

Grasping Squall's hand and giving it a squeeze, Rinoa nodded before closing her eyes. The last thing she remembered was a squeeze in return.

****

Author's Notes: Once again, I'm sorry for the delay in updating, but between graduation and writer's block, it was hard to get this done. But alas, here is the next chapter or Reality and Illusion.

I hope you all have enjoyed this installment. It took me awhile to actually see how this chapter would end, and whose perspective it should be in, but since this fic is more Rinoa/Squall pairing, I decided to end with them instead of the other characters. The chapter was a bit fluffier than the others, I think, but whatever.

Anyway, I would love to hear your thoughts about this chapter and for those of you awaiting some action, its soon on it's way. But don't worry for those who want romance - there will be plenty of that as well.  
  
I still have many more chapters planned before I finish Reality and Illusion, so hold on.

And as always, **READ AND REVIEW! ^_^ **Thanx!!


	10. Arising Problems

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Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 8 or its characters. They are ALL copyrighted by Squaresoft. ALL the chapters in this fic follow the same disclaimer!!!! I just own my created characters.

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Chapter 9 – Arising Problems

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The next thing Squall knew was opening his eyes because of a small ray of sunlight that always seemed to creep through the blinds of the window. _'Damn, I really need to get that thing fixed.'_ Yawning softly, Squall tried to get up, but found himself restrained on both sides. Blinking his eyes several times to erase his drowsiness, he noticed what exactly was restraining him. 

Rinoa, on one side, held his arm securely and slept like a baby. He could feel her soft breaths on his arms, with made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. She truly did look angelic at the moment. _'Beautiful……'_ he thought as he softly kissed her forehead.

Turning his head to the other side, he noticed Kari also, similar to her mother, held onto his arm securely. _'I thought she was in the middle? When did the switch happen?'_ Shrugging mentally, he kissed Kari's forehead as well, but as soon as he did, the little angel woke up. Smiling, Squall removed a few strands of hair from her face. "How's my angel doing?"

Kari, in reply, snuggled closer to her father, relishing the warmth he was spreading. "I'm good daddy. And you?"

"Never better." he replied curtly, while hugging his daughter with his free arm.

They rested like that for a couple of minutes longer, when Kari suddenly rose up, exclaiming her need to use the bathroom. Squall chuckled as he watched her race towards the bathroom, closing the door. Sighing, he felt something on his right, move, and knew his other angel was rising as well.

"And where is my good morning hug and kiss?" she asked sleepily.

Squall looked curiously at Rinoa. _'Did she just wake up now or five minutes back?'_

All of a sudden, Squall felt himself pushed flat on the bed. Rinoa had decided to come on top of Squall, looking down at him straight in the eyes. "Well?"

Not being able to contain himself, Squall closed the gap between them and gave Rinoa the kiss she wanted very badly, going slowly at first. Just when he started to heat things up, they heard the bathroom door unlock, and instantly, both of them pulled apart, but Rinoa did not relinquish her position upon Squall.

"All done!" Kari enthusiastically exclaimed as she stepped out. 

"That's good baby." Rinoa said as she finally got up. "Now, let's get you all cleaned up. C'mon, let's head back to our room to get some new clothes on you." 

"Otay mommy!" Kari then ran up and hugged her father before leaving. "See you later daddy."

"Bye……" Squall hesitantly replied, not really knowing what else to say.

Rinoa gave Squall a sad smile before exiting the room. As the door shut closed, the lone wolf gave out a tired sigh as he stared out his window. "Hopefully everything will go as I hope it will, so that way, I'll be the only one who has to leave……just me……hopefully." Entering his bathroom, Squall took his long awaited, twenty minute hot shower.

-----*****-----

"But mommy!!! I want to come with you!"

Rinoa sighed as she bent down to gaze at her daughter at eye-level. "I'm sorry baby, but this time – the answer is **no**. It is going to be _very_ dangerous and I don't want you getting hurt."

"If it's so dangerous then why are you going then mommy?" the little girl reputed back.

Rinoa sighed once again. _'Since when did she get so smart?'_ Pausing for a moment to think of a logical comeback, Rinoa couldn't think of any. "Well, don't worry about me. I've been in danger many times before. And plus, daddy is now here to protect me, so you won't have to worry."

"But daddy could protect me too!" Kari replied quickly.

She had had enough. "Kari, no means **no.** And plus, you don't want to disappoint Uncle Cid and Auntie Edea, do you? They want to play with you so much."

Kari looked towards the ground. "Oh yeeaahh. I'm sorry mommy. But promise you'll come back soon then."

__

'Finally!' Rinoa smiled brightly as she intertwined her pinky finger with her daughter's. "I promise baby. I promise."

Satisfied, Kari ran off towards Edea's room, convincing her mother that she was going to stay out of trouble. 

Rinoa watched her daughter as she ran off. _'Why in the world do I get the feeling she's going to be the cause of something big sooner of later?'_ With that last thought in her mind, Rinoa took off to join the others.

-----*****-----

****

"C'mon! What is taking them so long?!" Selphie wailed in the driver seat of the Ragnorak. 

Quistis and Zell tried everything in their power to try and calm the spunky girl down, but little was working. By that time however, Seifer had enough. Walking over to the young woman, he bent down and stared into her eyes. "Look! You're _really_ getting on my nerves. Relax, Rinoa and Squall will be here any minute." And ironically, at that same exact moment, Rinoa walked into the control room.

"Finally!" Selphie murmured out. "Now, where's Squall?"

Rinoa had a confused look on her face. "I thought he was already here?"

"WHAT! You mean to tell me that YOU don't know where he is either?! When I get my hands on him……I'll make sure he……"

Right on cue, Squall walked on. "You'll do what, Selphie?" he asked with a small smile.

The brunette stared at the commander and intelligently chose to stay quiet instead of replying with a witty remark. "Nothing Squall." she finally gave in and sighed. "All I know is that **I'm **driving………so hands of ZELL!"

"Chill, chill. Just checking out the equipment – making sure its all good. No reason to get cranky on me Selph." Zell casually replied. After receiving another death glare from Selphie, he let out a sigh of relief as his friend turned her attention elsewhere.

"Ok, so are we ready **_now_**?" Selphie asked impatiently.

Just as Squall was about to answer, Quistis interrupted, "Squall, that does not look like the sheath to your gunblade, Lionheart. What exactly is that?"

The lone wolf warrior looked towards his weapon. He knew Quistis was right. It definitely was _not_ Lionheart. But he couldn't tell them what it really was……at least not at the moment. "It's Lionheart. I just got a new sheath for it. Matches my outfit better, don't you think so?" he lied through his teeth. Lying was definetely not his thing.

"I agree!" Rinoa exclaimed as she grinned towards her love.

However, his excuse did not go well with everyone, especially with Seifer and Zack, who eyed the commander suspiciously for a moment. _'It can't be………can it?'_ both of them had thought.

Squall coughed, getting everyone to stop staring at his sheath and to pay attention to him. "Anyway……Cid's relying upon us to get Irvine out of Dragoon's hands and back with us. So pay attention as I relay our mission objectives, information and battle plan."

Everyone quickly averted his or her attention to Squall. Now that he was back, there was not any argument over who would lead them into battle. It was always Squall's position.

-----*****-----

__

'I remember mommy telling me that the Rag……rag….ragnorak was a very big red ship. Let's see if I can find it! Then I can help mommy and daddy with saving the world!' Kari's thoughts were quickly interrupted as she spotted the shining red coat that the grand airship – the Ragnorak – had, near the entrance of Balamb Garden. Staring at it in awe for many minutes, Kari saw her mother enter the ship at a far entrance on the other side of the ship, then her father minutes later.

Shrugging, Kari quickly followed her parents and ran on board the ship just as the exit closed. _'Hehehehe!'_

-----*****-----

"…anyway, as I said yesterday, the most important thing to ensure your survival is being able to tell the difference between reality and illusion. For some reason, Dragoon knows the weakness of every person, so he will use that to his advantage and perhaps create some type of illusion to lure you in, and then, before you realize it, you'll be in too deep and will be caught. I cannot stress that enough. For this reason, you should **never** travel alone, because one illusion to one person, may be something else to another, and since you will be seeing two different things, you'll know it's an illusion."

Squall paused, taking a glance at his comrades in arms. Everyone seemed to be nodding slowly at his explanation and battle plan. _'Luckily none of them are asking me how I know this stuff. I don't want to get into that.'_

"So, when we reach Shumi Village, we'll be splitting into two groups – one of a party of three and the other a party of four. This way, none of us will be alone and we'll be able to cover more ground this way. Seifer…" At the mention of his name, Seifer eyed Squall curiously, wondering what "Commander Puberty" had to say to him. Taking orders from his rival was something he was not happy on doing.

"…you'll be the leader of the group containing yourself, Zack and Zell. Since the three of you have already worked together before, and know what we are up against, it will be easier for you guys to find Irvine than the rest of us, who might just hold you back." Surprisingly, the three of them nodded. He was at least expecting some bickering from Zell or Seifer. But that was the least of his worries. "You'll attack from the front entrance of the village, and remember, if you do encounter orcs, look for the leader. If you take him out, the illusions will disappear."

Once again, the three of them nodded and took their seats. Now Squall looked towards the others. "Obviously, you girls will be coming with me as we enter the rear-end of the village." Quistis and Rinoa nodded, both of them relieved they were going with Squall, who seemed to know what he was actually doing.

Selphie, however, tapped her foot impatiently. "Now can we go!?"

"Yes Selphie. Go."

Within a blink of an eye, the airship kicked off the ground and sped northward.

-----*****-----

"Well, there they go Cid."

The headmaster nodded at his wife as he watched the Ragnorak disappear into the horizon. "I hope they take care of themselves. And I also hope they do realize that this threat is much bigger, and not to mention much more dangerous that Ultimecia was."

At the sound of the Sorceress's name, Edea gave a small shudder, but long enough for Cid to notice. "I'm sorry Edea."

Giving her husband a loving smile, she quickly intertwined her arm with his. "No problem."

Looking through the window for another few minutes, a thought suddenly struck Cid. "Edea, where's Kari?"

"She's right……….there……" Edea began to say as she pointed to an empty space behind them.

Cid looked puzzled. "Well, she's not there now."

"I know that!" Edea scowled at her husband as she exited the room, looking for the lost child. Shrugging, Cid continued to look out the window, deep into his thoughts when Edea came back five minutes later, completely breathless. "I can't find her. And everyone I asked said they haven't seen her either."

"That's not good." Cid pointed out clearly.

"Rinoa is going to **kill** me if she finds out."

Cid looked at his wife then back out the window. "But where in the world did she go? I mean, she _was _here just ten minutes ago, playing with her toys. I wonder where…….?" Cid left it at that thought as both adults began to think of all possibilities of Kari's whereabouts. Then another idea struck Cid. "Edea, you don't think Kari went to say goodbye to her mother, do you?"

Edea rolled her eyes. "Nonsense. Why, the only way she could do that if she went into the air…ship………" 

Both looked out the window, then to each other and then……stood petrified. 

-----*****-----

The trip to Shumi Village – the whole two hours – was relatively quiet for the exception of Zell and his tapping foot and other slight noises. There was nothing really to say or do, but just wait till they get there. Squall observed Selphie for some time – who was humming some tune foreign to him – but after awhile, that got boring, so he decided to check out everyone else.

Seifer was in the back of the cockpit, sitting at the farthest chair located _away_ from Squall. _'Go figure.'_ His face was completely passive, so Squall couldn't tell what he was thinking.

He then turned his attention towards the new guy, Zack. For some odd reason, the black-haired gunblader looked very familiar, in a way that Squall did not like………especially the crimson red gunblade of his.

Shrugging, and resolving himself to think about it later, he looked towards Zell, who like always seemed anxious to fight. Now that he thought about it, it was quite strange how Zell reacted when he found him alive. Zell, besides Rinoa, was the first person Squall thought that would be overjoyed at his presence. _'Things have changed.'_

His former instructor, Quistis, was looking out the window, and therefore, Squall could not see her expression either. However, he did have the feeling that Quistis was hiding something from him……everyone for that matter too. 

Movement on his arm quickly brought Squall's attention from the real world to the world he solely lived in – Rinoa. _'It's still unbelievable that she's right here……here. Right next to me, snuggling against me for warmth. If this was three years back, I would have probably fidgeted around until Rinoa left me alone. Now……now I'm craving this attention……and this strange feeling of……warmth…compassion………love…'_

Before he had any other chance to dive deeper into his thoughts, a shout from Selphie quickly had everyone's attention. "We are here!"

-----*****-----

The Ragnorak hovered over the front entrance of Shumi Village. Giving them some final pieces of advice, Squall handed Seifer, Zack and Zell two transmitters to the three of them, to keep in touch in case something does happen. After receiving final nods, the trio jumped off the airship and parachuted their way down to the front entrance of the burnt down village. 

"Ok Selphie, head towards the end of town!" Squall yelled as she shut the door closed.

"Roger that!" was all Squall heard before he was thrown back into the wall at the quick rise in velocity the Ragnorak experienced in a few short seconds.

Squall shook his head. "That's the last time I put her in the driver's seat."

**__**

"So, are you suspicions right? Is it really Dragoon?" a sudden voice asked, popping into Squall's mind out of nowhere.

__

"I don't know Bahamut." Squall replied. He walked toward the window to peer down towards the village. _"This place looks……awful. It could very well be **him**, but we both know that there are other things out there that are capable of this much power."_

****

"But who has the better motive? So random guy, or Dragoon?"

He sighed. _"I know Bahamut, I know. But I just wish it wasn't, you know what I mean? Because if it's him, then who knows where I'll end up."_

At that, Bahamut wisely worded his next comment. Because it always came down to _that_. If it really was Dragoon, then his master might just have to leave everything………again. **_"I feel your pain, friend."_**

Smiling slight inwardly, Squall shrugged and didn't reply to Bahamut's comment. Looking out the window once again, he viewed the devastated Shumi Village. If they ever did plan to rebuild the town, they would have to start from scratch. There was not even one hut standing, save for a few here and there.

He didn't know when it happened, but a tap on his shoulder brought Squall from the recesses of his mind once again. Turning around, he found it was Rinoa, with Selphie and Quistis. "Are you alright Squall." Rinoa asked. "I've been saying your name a few times just to find no reaction from you." 

Shrugging, Squall noticed the airship had landed. Opening the door, he quietly walked out of the Ragnorak, leaving the girl's with a one world answer, "Whatever."

Rinoa looked worriedly at Squall, and began to trudge after him when Quistis stopped her short. "Rinoa, don't. I'm guessing that Shumi Village has reminded him of something about his past – a past he will tell us when he's ready."

"This place **is** terrible Quistis, but I'm also worried about the idiot!" Rinoa protested. 

The instructor sighed. "We all are Rinny. But it will be better for you _not_ to pry him open, yet. Let's first concentrate of getting Irvine back, right Selphie?"

"You got that, sister!" the brunette exclaimed as she followed Squall.

Rinoa took another long glance at Squall, who seemed to be surveying the area, before nodding. "I guess your right Quisty. I'm sorry."

Quistis smiled. "It's ok Rinoa. I understand your worries. Like I said before, let's get Irvine back, then when we're all together, you can pry him open so much, he'll become a used book."

Giggling, Rinoa followed Quistis out of the Ragnorak to where Squall and Selphie were standing. "So what do we do first, Squall?" Selphie asked quickly, a hint of eagerness hidden in her voice.

Before Squall got the chance to answer, a huge series of roars came out from behind the four of them. The three girls turned around, only to find a huge group of monsters running from the horizon, aiming for only four things – them!

Squall turned around as he cracked his knuckles, but strangely to the girls, did not unsheath his gunblade. "Let's show them the reason why we are **SeeD!**" 

  
Everyone was top preoccupied with getting their weapons, not to notice that Squall had said "SeeD." He never referred to themselves as SeeD ever since the downfall of Ultimecia. And the drastic change in Squall's eye color – from ice blue to the deep, oceanic blue.

****

Author's Notes: First, let me apologize at the delay of adding this chapter. You guys are going to kill me when I tell you this, but in reality, I had this chapter done a week ago, but never found the time (like 5 minutes) to actually upload it up at fanfiction.net. So, again, I am very very very sorry about that.

Anyway, as thoughts pertaining to this chapter. I find that I actually liked it when I read it. At first, I wasn't too happy with the way it came out, but as I checked it over, it was pretty good, but what's important is what you guys think. So, I do hope you like it and enjoy it. 

FYI, even though it doesn't seem possible, I do hope to get this story done by late August - early September so I can get my ideas gathered for a Part III - yes, its confirmed, a Part III to Eternal Struggle. But I still don't know when that will actually come out. 

So, again, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and like always, I want to hear YOUR thoughts about it. **Read and Review!** You are what keep me alive.

Till next chapter,  
vindemon6


	11. Prisoners of War

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Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 8 or its characters. They are ALL copyrighted by Squaresoft. ALL the chapters in this fic follow the same disclaimer!!!! I just own my created characters.

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Chapter 10 – Prisoners of War

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"Holy!" Rinoa yelled out as a pure white light emanated from her body and blasted through ten monsters at once. The once sorceress grinned widely as she viewed what she had done. _'Yep, still have the touch. Three years and still going!'_

Selphie and Quistis were taking turns blasting the monsters with a series of Thunders, Fires and Blizzards, always hitting the mark dead on. "Hey Quisty! I still haven't found any illusions. Could they all be the real thing? I mean, I haven't seen any of my attacks going through any one of those filthy creatures."

The instructor attacked a random monster with her whip, but only found out to have it go through it completely. Not believing her eyes, Quistis attacked once again and had the same consequences. "Selphie! NO, there **are** some illusions. I just…………"

At that exact moment, the illusion monster fired a meltdown blast straight towards Quistis. Not expecting it to actually hit, she just stood there, but soon found out to be a huge mistake, as she felt her skin becoming burned to the crisp. Completely exhausted, Quistis immediately fell to the ground, barely able to kneel on her knees, let alone, stand up. 

Rinoa whipped her head around just in time to see her friend fall to the ground. "Selphie!! Quistis needs help!" she yelled as she shot her Shooting Star at a monster, only to have it go right through it. "What!? That was a complete hit! I don't believe…………"

The monster that Rinoa just shot her weapon at, aimed a powerful Thundaga spell towards her. Like Quistis before, Rinoa stood her ground, thinking that since the monster was an illusion, the attack would not hit. The Thundaga spell hit dead on, and for some reason, Rinoa fell instantly to the attack. Through blurry eyes, Rinoa could make out the orcs coming in all around her. Her breathing becoming heavy, she did the only thing that came to mind. "Sqqquuuuaaalllll!" She then passed out.

He was in the middle of unleashing a power Meteor spell when the yell reached his ears. Instantaneously, he whipped his head around to find his love plummeting to the ground as a Thunder spell hit her dead on. His oceanic blue eyes burned with rage at the sight. He quickly looked over to Selphie, only to find her barely holding her ground. 

Squall then looked over to Quistis, who was barely up, straining to cast her next spell, just to defend herself. _'Shit, no time at all. If I want to save them, I need to find the leader, and fast.'_

Knowing he only had a few sacred seconds to spare, Squall quickly roamed the battlefield over with his eyes. Each orc monster he passed looked exactly the same. There was no difference. _'DAMN! Where the hell is he?'_

Casting a simple Fire spell at a nearby orc, it was then Squall's oceanic blue eyes had found his prey. There he was; the leader Orc who was standing at the edge of the battlefield, smirking to himself as he watched his minions and illusions do his job for him. 

Once again, Squall desperately took another glance at Rinoa, who lay unconscious on the ground. Selphie was losing her handle on things, and Quistis definitely had her better days. With one loud battle cry, Squall leaped into the air.

Faster than the naked eye could comprehend, Squall had unsheathed his mysterious gunblade, sliced the leader Orc in half, and re-sheathed just as quickly, never looking back. If anyone had been paying attention to him, all they would have seen was a flash of light.

Time seemed to stop still as all the orcs stopped in their tracks and turned their heads towards their leader. Shock filled all of their faces as they witnessed their leader, the strongest of their group, cut in half faster than a blink of an eye. With the snap of Squall's fingers, time resumed once more, and in the same second, three fourths of the orc monsters suddenly disappeared without a trace of them anywhere.

As for the remaining orcs, once glace towards Squall's face, especially his eyes, gave them the message to run away as fast as possible.

With the enemy gone for the meantime, Squall dropped his guard and stopped to regain his breath. _'Damn, I didn't want to use that attack so soon.' _Before he had more time to think upon it, Rinoa's condition quickly popped into his mind. Cursing himself for forgetting the most important thing in his life for even a second, he quickly ran over to his love, to find her breathing normally, but still unconscious. Sighing in relief, he cradled her in his arms before walking over to Selphie and Quistis.

"You guys okay?" he asked sincerely.

Selphie nodded. "Yeah……just...out…of…breath."

"Ditto." Quistis acknowledged as she struggled to get up.

Squall frowned at the condition of his party. They were clearly worn out and they didn't even face the _meat_ of Dragoon's army. _'This is definitely not a good sign.'_ he said to himself.

**__**

'You know, you could have summoned me out and I would have taken them out in one shot.'

Rolling his eyes, Squall offered Quistis a hand while cradling Rinoa with one arm somehow. _'I know I could Bahamut. But you're my trump card. I can't summon you against regular enemies. Then Dragoon will know our strongest surprise.'_

Bahamut couldn't help but to smirk at Squall's statement of him being the strongest. **_'I understand master, but still, look at your friends.'_**

'I know Bahamut, I know. I guess I'm going to have to give them some pointers about battling these monsters. They are definitely not the same as regular Earth monsters. I suppose three years of peace could tone down one's fighting skills. After all, I've been fighting for my life **all** those three years.'

Bahamut nodded. **_'You're going to have to find a safe place to rest.'_**

Squall nodded at the Guardian Force's words as he slowly scanned the area. All the huts that once belonged to Shumi Village were all burned save for a few, here and there. There was no cave in sight. 

Knowing he needed to find a rest area fast, Squall settled on the closest hut, which was about a few hundred feet away. "Can you two walk?"

Selphie nodded. Quistis, on the other hand, hand trouble even staying up. "Looks my legs don't want to." she said with a somber smile.

"I'll help." Selphie replied as she put an arm around her friend, trying to help her balance on her two feet. Squall held Rinoa in his arms. He could have shifted her onto his back, but at the moment, he wanted to see her angelic face. He wanted to know she was safe, and resting peacefully. Starting their brief journey, Squall looked towards the sky. _'I hope you guys are having better luck than we are………Seifer, Zell and Zack.'_

-----*****-----

"C'mon chicken wuss, can't you go any faster!?" Seifer yelled out as he turned around to find Zell a good distance away from himself and Zack.

Zell looked up, responding to Seifer's call and finally noticed how far apart he was from the other two. He quickly jogged up to them and waved his hand. "Sorry guys. I suppose my mind is some place else, if you know what I mean." he stated rhetorically. 

Seifer answered anyway. "Yeah, whatever. Just try not to slow us down again. I……well…understand man." 

The martial-artist looked towards Seifer in surprise then shrugged, dismissing the comment. "Yeah…"

Seifer grunted in return as he looked over towards Zack. For some reason, the black-haired warrior gave him the feeling of insecurity. He kept too much to himself. "So raven head, why are you so quiet?"

"Who? Me?" Zack asked innocently.

"Well, who else here has black hair? Yeah! You! What's bothering you?" Seifer asked, already annoyed with his people in his party.

Zack just shrugged as he kept on walking. "Well, to tell you the truth, what I'm worried about is the fact that since this Dragoon guy supposedly has sooo much power in his hands, he could unleash a full-scale attack upon the Earth anytime he wants to. I mean, what's stopping him from actually doing that?"

"The Sorceress's powers." Zell replied casually as he finally caught up to the other two.

"Huh?" Both Seifer and Zack asked in unison. "Isn't that what makes him the ultimate being at the moment?" Zack said, voicing out his thoughts.

Zell nodded. "Yeah, that's true. But from what I hear of things, Dragoon is having a hard time controlling those powers."

"Care to explain further, chicken-wuss?" 

Zell gave an annoyed glance towards Seifer before continuing. "Well, you guys probably already know that the powers of the Sorceress **usually** are contained within a female's body. I overheard Cid talking last night that since Dragoon is a male, and not a female, the powers, for some unknown reason, are having a hard time completely adjusting to his body. My guess is that the powers of the Sorceress have been used to a female's body for so long, that it has trouble with the male's body."

Both Zack and Seifer stood quiet for some time. Seifer had a thoughtful look upon his face while Zack had an expression that resembled current thinking and a hint of annoyance, which went undetected by Seifer and Zell. "Makes sense." Seifer and Zack replied after some time.

Zell shrugged. "Yeah, well, anyway, we should be concentrating on finding some clues rather than talking. Irvine could be anywhere in this run-town village, and we **have** to find him."

"Yeah, yeah, hold on to your pants chicken…………" Seifer couldn't finish his sentence as an earth-shattering loud roar stopped him from doing so. "What the hell was that?"

Automatically, Seifer and Zack unsheathed their gunblades as Zell readied a Meteor spell. 

All three fighters waited patiently as they heard the roar coming closer and closer, but from which direction, none of them could fathom. "Where the hell is it coming from?!" Zell exclaimed as he whipped his head three-hundred and sixty degrees.

"Have no clue." Zack replied as he was mimicking the same motion with his head. "Just be ready to attack or defend."

"That's obvious, Zacky boy!" Seifer yelled. 

The ground started to rumble softly, then vivaciously as cracks started to form throughout the ground quickly, going to the extent of it splitting apart. 

Then it appeared. 

A monster that towered over the three fighters easily. To Zell's judgement, it was at least thirty feet high. And to make matters even more mysterious, it appeared from behind them. 

"What the hell!? How did that piece of shit manage to appear from thin air!? We should have seen it coming from miles away!"

Zack nor Seifer had no time to answer Zell's question, for they were too busy making sure they would not become flattened like pancakes. 

"Ok, scratch that question. New one! Got any ideas on how to fight this thing!?" Zell yelled as he rethought his strategy of attacking with a Meteor Spell. _'Knowing his size, meteor will only be pieces of rock, making him tickle or something.'_

Seifer gritted his teeth as he clenched his gunblade, the Hyperion, harder. _'Damn it, well, here goes nothing,'_ "TRIPLE-FIRAGA!"

The humongous monster was soon attacked by three huge fiery explosions that covered his whole body. Before they could see the results of Seifer's attacks, dust covered up the monster instantly, forcing the three warriors to play the waiting game. 

As the gray clouds slowly dispersed, the three comrades expected to see the monster still standing there, with at least some form of damage upon its body. However, the disappeared smoke only revealed empty air.

Seifer's eyes went wide. "What the fuck! Where the hell did he go? How the hell could he have just disappeared like that?!"

"Keep your guard up!" Zack yelled as he tightened his grasp upon his rose red gunblade. "He could be anywhere."

"No shit sherlock!" was the reply from Seifer. 

The three of them waited for what seemed like forever. Sweat perspired down their faces like there was no tomorrow. They didn't even move one step, for fear they might fall into some trap. The clouds in the air passed by slowly and peacefully, signaling that there was no disruption in the air. Birds chirped their songs as a flock of ducks flew overhead. 

It wasn't until a full five minutes had passed when Zell began to get restless. Thinking the monster might have just been an illusion that Squall had been talking about, he let down his defenses and relaxed. "Hey guys! Maybe that monster was an illusion of some sort." And with that last thought, Zell took a step forward………

…………………………..

………and soon found himself dangling in mid-air, held by one huge hand, on his leg, by the monster who had suddenly reappeared itself from an invisible blanket of air. 

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Get me off this piece of shit!" Zell yelled in the air while being swung like a child's toy.

"Shit!" Seifer cursed out as he retreated a few steps back to a safety zone. "What now!? We can't risk attacking. We could hit Zell!"

"I don't know!" Zack yelled as he went into a defensive stance. "I just don't know!"

"Damn!" Seifer looked around himself to see if anything could be used to his advantage, and to make things even worse, the land was so barren, that there was barely anything around, let alone a few trees and upright cottages. "Zell! Can't you do anything!?"

"What the hell! Don't you think I'm trying Seifer!?" Zell shouted back as he was being swung around witlessly. "This….monster……is….moving me…….all….too quickly…I'm……..getting………dizzy………"

"That's it! SCAN!" At once, a yellowish-aura surrounded Zack as information of the monster poured into his mind:

*Creature Name: Orgoth the Relentless. Element: Earth. Weakness: Wind. Description: A twenty-seven foot monster whose armor is stronger than diamonds or adamantine. Nearly impossible to pierce, its only weakness is its weakness against wind elemental attacks. If strong enough wind gusts, dents occur in its armor weak spots, which are pierce-able.*

"Seifer! It's weak against wind!" The black-haired warrior jumped once again as Orgoth tried to step on him. "Have anything!?"

Seifer, dodging as well, took a moment to think before replying. "Wind….wind….wind…….the only thing I got is Aero! But compared to his size and "so-called" armor, it won't do a freakin' thing!"

"Guys!!!!" 

Both Seifer and Zack looked up at Zell's sudden outburst. "I………have……Pan…de…mon…a!"

"Who?!" 

"Shit! Pandemona!" Seifer emphasized angrily at Zack's question. "A Guardian Force with wind power! We **need** to free Zell!"

"Easier said that done man!" was all Zack could say. "And how exactly do you plan on doing that?"

"Like this!!!!!!!! TRIPLE-AERO!" Seifer closed his eyes as three balls of light suddenly emitted from his hand and turned into spirals of wind. Within seconds, it surrounded Orgoth one by one until all three were swirling around the huge monster. 

__

'C'mon you freakin' monster. You gotta have some kind of weakness.' Seifer watched helplessly as his attacks were swirling around the humongous beast, trying to lift it into the air. 

Then something totally unexpected happened. 

A simple, yet opaque white cloud suddenly came into existence and started to cover Orgoth. Before Zack or Seifer had any chance to retaliate against the strange thing, the cloudy substance covered the monster completely. 

Both Zack and Seifer watched dumbly as the clouds started to dissipate slowly. Once it had however, both blade-warriors were wide-eyed. Both were expecting Orgoth to still be there, and at the most, cured of any kind of injury Seifer's attack may have caused. But instead, there was nothing. Just nothing.

"Where the fuck did it go!?" Seifer yelled furiously as he rammed is gunblade into the earth, tip first. "Where the hell did it go!?"

"He's got Zell…" Zack solemnly stated as he re-sheathed his gunblade. "He's knocking us out one by one."

-----*****-----

Squall kicked the door open as the inside of the hut revealed a dusty interior. After making sure everything was safe, he went back outside to signal his comrades that everything was indeed, okay. He gently picked up an unconscious Rinoa and headed back into the hut, closely followed by Selphie and an injured Quistis. 

"Let's rest here for now guys till we can think of another way to attack." 

  
Both Selphie and Quistis nodded as they made their way over to one of the two beds located in the hut. Squall laid Rinoa down on the other one. Checking her temperature and pulse rate, Squall let out a relieved sigh. _'She's only exhausted. She's probably not used to be using forbidden magic like Holy, even now since her powers are not with her.'_

"How are you two feeling? Any better?"

Selphie and Quistis looked at Squall in amazement, marveling in the way he was opening up his feelings and concern towards them. "We're fine Squall, just tired."

"Yeah," Selphie reiterated. "But I do have one question for you……"

Squall kept his eyes locked on Rinoa, "I'm listening…" 

"That attack you performed earlier Squall……well…I've never seen anything like it before. One minute you were there, and the next, you're on the other side of the battlefield, with your enemy cut in half."

The commander sighed as he sat down next to his love's body. He hadn't wanted to use the attack that early, or at all. Besides Bahamut, the attack was another one of his trump cards. _'I guess it wouldn't hurt me if I told them the truth about the attack.'_ "Well, I picked it up a year ago while I was '_away._' All I actually know about it is that it isn't as powerful as my other attack, Lionheart. But because of the speed at which I execute the attack, I usually can cut the enemy in half. But, there's one huge catch."

Both Selphie and Quistis were listening attentively to Squall's explanation. The extent of his skill astonished both of them prodigiously. 

"The attack requires a lot of energy to be spent. It may not look like I'm tired or exhausted, but in the inside, it feels like I can't take another step with collapsing."

Selphie nodded. "Wow……that must be some attack then."

"Yeah, it is." Squall merely shrugged at the comment. "But we have more important things to worry about, like you guys."

"What about us?!" Selphie wailed surprisingly. "Shouldn't we be looking for Irvine!?"

Quistis nodded. "She's got a point Squall. What about us?"

Squall sighed. "Look, it's about the way you guys were battling out there earlier. If you keep that up, you're basically going to die sooner or later. You have to remember how you guys fought against Ultimecia and use those tactics and strategies here as well."

Both girls dejectedly look towards the ground. They knew Squall was right. That was not their best. 

"By the way, do you girls have any GF's junctioned to yourselves?"

"Oh my god! I totally forgot!" Selphie wailed once again as she slapped herself on the forehead.

"Same goes for me too." Quistis added dryly. 

"Jeez. I can't believe you both forgot!!" The tone of Squall's voice could have easily scared away any person in the room. Both girls however, stood their ground. They almost lost their lives out there because of one stupid error that should have been a regular habit. _'I can't believe they forgot to junction. Three years of peace surely has done some damage.'_

****

'You're saying it like it's a bad thing.'

Squall sighed annoyingly. _'You know what I mean Bahamut. They should have at least been training or something. I would have done that if I were in their place.'_

****

'They have a life.'

'Bahamut?'

****

'Yes?'

'Shutup!'

"So Squall, what's our next move." 

The lone wolf warrior looked up as Quistis stated her question. Truthfully, Squall had no clue what they were going to do next. From the minute they landed in Shumi Village, they had not come across one single clue or piece of evidence that would help them lead to the whereabouts of Irvine. 

"I don't…………" He stopped short when something caught his eye.

"You don't what?" Selphie asked curiously.

Squall suddenly got up and walked across the room to where the object of interest laid silently on the ground. _'Yes, that what I thought I saw.'_ Slowly, he bent down and picked up the object.

"What's that Squall?"

"Exeter………Irvine's gun."

-----*****-----

A figure stepped out of the Ragnarok slowly, awed at the picture that stood in front of her. "Woooooooooowww! This place is huge."

Kari looked around. There were so many places to go and so little time she had, if she knew how to count time. Squinting her eyes so she could see better against the shining sun, she finally noticed a couple of cottages in the distance and decided that those would be the best place to start her investigation.

She skipped the whole way to the cottages until she finally reached her destination. Now that she was closer, she noticed that there were two cottages instead of the three she thought she saw.

Choosing the cottage on her right, she walked up to it slowly and stopped by the entrance when the sounds of voices reached her ear. Almost immediately, Kari ran away and hoped that nobody would have noticed her. 

Gathering the courage she had within every fiber of her body, she entered the other cottage on her left.

  
To her surprise, it was empty.

She let out a surprised gasp but quickly covered her mouth, in fear that somebody might hear her. Bravely, Kari took out her flashlight and turned it own. She scanned the room with what little light her item was emitting, only to find nothing out of the ordinary besides a roughly made bed and a closet in the corner of the room.

Shrugging mentally, Kari went up to the closet and opened it. 

What she found was a ladder leading down.

Curiosity getting the better of her, she carefully climbed down the ladder and once again, turned on her flashlight. 

"I'm in a cave?!" She gasped despite herself.

And the next thing she saw was black.

The flashlight slowly fell to the floor with a loud _'clink'_ sound. A figure approached the unconscious girl and smiled devilishly. 

"This is too perfect!"

****

Author's Notes: Well, there's chapter 10 of Reality and Illusion. When I was writing this, I wasn't sure that this was as good as I hoped it would be. I know there isn't as much romance in this chapter as there were in others, but I still feel confident it fits correctly into my story.

Again, I would love to thank ALL my reviewers and readers. Truly, if it weren't for you guys, I wouldn't be in this business. I love reading all of your reviews and all. 

Hopefully I'll get the next chapter in soon. 

And as always, **LEAVE A REVIEW!**

Till next chapter,  
vindemon64


	12. Dreaded Past and Terrifying Future

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Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 8 or its characters. They are ALL copyrighted by Squaresoft. ALL the chapters in this fic follow the same disclaimer!!!! I just own my created characters. 

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Chapter 11 – Dreaded Past and Terrifying Future

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"Lemme see!" Selphie wailed as she ran over to Squall and literally tore the gun from his grasp. She eyed it adoringly from every inch and corner until she gave her approval. "Yeppers, its Irvine's alright."

"Go figure……" Squall muttered under his breath, luckily for him, Selphie didn't hear. 

"So, what exactly does this mean?" Quistis asked as she slowly got up from her sitting position, trying to resist pain evident in her leg.

Squall quickly surveyed the hut they were in. To the normal eye, it seemed like any ordinary hut – its two twin beds were old, cryptic antiques here and there, etc. However, Squall knew there had to be a catch. _'Why exactly would the enemy leave Irvine's gun out in the open. Was it that he wanted to lure us into a trap by giving us an easy clue? Or was it that he wanted to throw us completely of track, making us head in the wrong direction?'_

"Squall! I want to know what you're thinking!" Selphie commanded him. 

Sighing, the commander slowly shared his thoughts to Quistis and Selphie, who nodded at both options. A moment of silence existed among the three conscious people as Squall worriedly gazed at an unconscious Rinoa as he let his thoughts run wild, thinking of their next move.

Quistis watched Selphie sigh hopelessly as she fell to her knees, hugging Irvine's metallic shotgun. No matter how much she thought about it, only one answer came to the front of her mind. "Squall, we need to split up." she murmured dryly, loud enough for everyone to hear. 

Selphie looked at her surprisingly, while Squall stared in disbelief. "Are you crazy Quistis? For one thing, we have no clue what traps Dragoon has in store for us. Two, they are numerous amounts of monsters that **I** even haven't seen that Dragoon has to offer. And thirdly, you guys are in no shape to split up the team evenly, with Rinoa unconscious, and you two injured from our previous encounter. And…………"

Quistis put her hand up swiftly, stopping Squall in his tracks. "Look Squall. I know your intentions are good and all, but think of it from a logical point of view. What you said, there are not one, but **two** options we have to choose from. If we choose one of them together as a big group and are wrong, then we'll no doubt be risking Irvine's life. However, if we split up into two groups and followed both options, we have a much higher chance of saving him."

As much as Selphie wanted to disagree with Quistis, she found her logic to be quite convincing. Selphie did not want to separate from Squall, mostly because he knew what he was doing. However, Squall had made good points before, saying how dangerous it was, but if they were going to find Irvine alive, it would be better to cover more ground. "Squall, Quisty is right. We have to split up. The more ground we cover, the higher the chance we have of finding Irvine."

Looking furiously at Quistis, then to Selphie and back to Quistis, Squall let out an exasperated sigh. They were right. Their main objective at the time was to find Irvine. "But how are we going to break up the group?"

Quistis and Selphie both smiled. Wasn't it obvious to him? "We'll go together." both girls said in unison. "…while you look after Rinoa." Selphie added.

__

'Damn, I was hoping that would stop them from actually going through with this idea.' Squall had hoped fruitlessly. It was not that he didn't trust them, but from how he saw them battle earlier, he knew they wouldn't stand a chance if they ran into one of Dragoon's more stronger monsters if they continued to fight they way they did against the orcs.

"UGH! Ok, fine, you guys win." Squall grudgingly accepted as he threw his hands in the air in defeat. "But not before letting me give you girls some pointers."

Selphie and Quistis smiled and nodded furiously.

"First of all, **never** forget to junction yourself. Just forgetting to perform the action lessens your chance for survival by almost one-hundred percent."

From the tone in Squall's voice, both girls knew that if they did disobey Squall's pointers, and if they would still be alive after all this, Squall would probably kill them himself.

"Secondly, avoid battles at **all** costs. Most of Dragoon's top monsters are as strong as our Guardian Forces, even stronger. I'm pretty sure you witnessed that back as his stronghold at the Lunar Base on the moon."

The girls nodded, patiently waiting for more information that would save them in a tight spot.

"Thirdly, if you ever see anything suspicious, **never** approach it quickly! **Always**, and I do mean always, check your perimeter. It can always be a trap. And while on the topic of trap, don't forget about what I told you about Dragoon's ability to create your worst nightmares in the most realistic illusions possible. Yeah, I know – pretty ironic."

Seeing that Squall was finished, Selphie and Quistis went to take leave, stopping short at a call from their leader.

__

'I don't know how to say this…………' Squall thought in his mind, _'…but…'_ "Please, take care of yourselves out there. I……" Squall choked on his words. Never, never in a million years had he pictured himself actually sharing his feelings with anyone, with the exception of Rinoa, and that was also a _sometimes_ thing.

Both girls smiled with tearful eyes as both gave a reassuring wink towards Squall. "Don't worry 'bout it Squallie!" Selphie exclaimed. "Why would we want to go when we just got you back?" 

As they left, both girls thought the same thing. _'Squall **has** changed………for the better.'_

-----*****-----

Seifer stared at the air in utter disbelief. He just **could not**, would not believe what had just happened. The chicken wuss had disappeared, along with the monster, into thin air. "Just how the fucking HELL could it happen!? I don't understand!!!!!!!!" he exclaimed loudly as he punched his fist hard onto the ground. 

Zack looked sympathetically at Seifer. Even though he wasn't as angry as Seifer, he too, was devastated at the loss they had just suffered. Apparently, this Dragoon guy was much stronger than he could ever imagine. Why exactly he took this case, he would never know. But when the Trabia headmaster called him for this mission, he knew he just had to agree………………

__

"Zack, being the best fighter in Trabia, will you accept this mission?"

Zack looked at the headmaster of Trabia in shock. If he did accept this mission, not only would he have a huge adventure on his hands, but he would also be working with the four SeeDs and the ex-sorceress that were responsible for defeating the wicked witch, Ultimecia, herself. It was an opportunity not to be wasted.

Without any doubt lingering in his mind, he quickly accepted the mission.

Their first battle was intense, and Zack thought they were not going to make it. Whenever he fought, he always held a solemn face and a steady, unemotional mind – it made things much go much smoother in battle for him. Then they retreated, something which Zack hated to do, but knew it was necessary in war sometimes.

Then, when Squall, the man he only heard about in stories, came back from his supposed death, it only rekindled his hope that they would succeed. Sure, some of the stories he heard of Squall depicted him as a seven-foot gun-blade warrior who could make enemies cower in fear with just the look he gave with his cold-hearted eyes. 

  
Even though that was not the picture he saw back at Balamb Garden of Squall, his respect for him didn't waver at all. He knew Squall was just as good. To even re-insure his mind, the gun-blade which Squall owned looked like the one from legends. 

And with the little child in his hands, he even seemed to be a caring person, once you looked past his rough exterior. He secretly hoped that he would be teamed up with him – fighting side by side. However, that was not the case………yet at least. 

Coming back to reality, Zack just couldn't shake one thing that lingered from the back of his mind. It was like………he belonged to this group; like he should have been there from the beginning with them. However, for some strange reason, he was separated and lived his life separately. He felt a connection to them………more so to one of them than the others, though he didn't know which one. Then again, this all could be a figment of his imagination. Making friends was always hard for him. Everyone he met always ended up with the same view of him – a loner.

Chastising himself quickly for losing focus, Zack currently thought of all the options they had. One – go find the others and tell about the tragedy. However, he quickly checked off that option – more bad news would only lead to more panic.

Two – continue looking for Irvine fruitlessly as they had been so previously. They didn't have any clues whatsoever about his whereabouts, and more than likely, they were wasting time while Irvine's, and now Zell's life hung in the balance. Zack softly shook his head, checking that option off too.

Three – the only other option he could think of; look for Dragoon and more of his monsters. Zack shuddered at the thought. True, looking for either one could lead them to death, but if they were going to have any chance in rescuing Zell and Irvine, they needed to get stronger.

"Seifer, do you have any ideas on our next move." Zack asked solemnly, trying to block all emotions he held within. That was the way of the warrior, he believed.

Seifer angrily stared at the sorry excuse for a gun-blader, and was about to say something about him being heartless, when Zack unexpectedly continued.

"I know what you're going to say Seifer……" the black haired gun-blader said. "……that I'm being heartless and should be worrying about Zell's disappearance and all, but if we do that, then what's the point?"

  
Seifer, again about to say something, was again interrupted by Zack, who again, unexpectedly continued.

"I think we have to get stronger. Look at what happened when we faced Orgoth the Relentless earlier. We stood **no** chance at all against him. If we even want to have a hair of a chance to rescue them, we need to be able to overwhelm our opponents. I mean, if we were beaten so easily by Dragoon's minions, just think what would happen if we faced Dragoon himself! Instant death!"

He wanted to say something, but didn't take to effort to try. Seifer knew that Zack wasn't going to stop, and something inside him told him that the raven-haired fellow was talking sense. 

"We have to **look** for monsters, and not the other way around. Let the hunters be the hunted. I believe if we actually ambush these monsters, if possible, we could maybe find out their weaknesses and at the same time, maybe even uncover some valuable information of where Zell and Irvine could be held."

When Zack spoke no more, Seifer slowly contemplated at what his comrade in arms had just said. Smiling to himself, he slowly got up and clutched the Hyperion, his trusty gunblade, and cocked Zack an arrogant smile. He was right. It was time to for the hunted to become the hunters. He was tired of running. "Where do we start Zacky boy?"

Zack, surprised that his logic was being accepted, retuned the arrogant smile with one of his own. "I suggest with those tracks." 

Seifer eyed them curiously. _'How come we didn't notice them before?'_ Deciding to not ruin a good clue, Seifer was about to move when he noticed something. "But they lead out of the village."

Shrugging, Zack also clung to his rose red gunblade, although unnamed. "Whoever said that everything was in Shumi Village?"

Smirking, both men followed the trail. Maybe making friends would not be as hard as it was in the past for Zack. Just maybe he would earn the respect of one, or luckily, all seven.

-----*****-----

Watching the two girls leave the hut, Squall returned his attention towards Rinoa, who seemed to show no improvement in her status. Quickly checking her forehead, he sighed in relief as her fever had tremendously decreased. 

**__**

'So, what's the next move, master?'

"Nothing…" Squall whispered.

Bahamut was surprised at the answer. **_'Nothing……but……'_**

'We wait until Rinoa recovers. We can't do anything without her.'

Silence followed the two of them for a couple of minutes when a thought that Bahamut had been thinking for awhile came to the forefront of his mind. It was now or never, the beast commanded himself.

**__**

'Master……'

'Yeah Bahamut?'

****

'You're probably going to kill me for keeping this observation a secret for so long, but I believe Mistress Rinoa still has some of her powers within her body.'

Bahamut became worried when Squall gave no answer, not even an acknowledgment to his statement. As he was about to state it again, Squall answered.

__

'I………I know……'

****

'But, if you knew……I mean……how…why?'

Exhaling strongly, Squall looked at Rinoa's body, resting their peacefully upon the bed. _'I still feel a bond connecting my mind to her mind just as strongly as I felt it during the battle with Ultimecia; the bond shared between a sorceress and her knight – I still feel it.'_

Bahamut knew the "how" answer was going to be the easy part. But for some reason, the answer to the question "why" would take a bit more to answer. The dragon waited patiently. 

__

'I……after Dragoon absorbed the powers from Rinoa, I actually felt happy; happy that my responsibilities as a knight were over. Don't get me wrong Bahamut, I still would have protected her with my life, but there was a huge weight taken off me when I realized that Rinoa would not be subjected to the side effects if I ever failed my role as a knight – going into madness; losing control of her powers; creating a world of chaos – that would never happen to **my** Rinoa.'

The guardian force was about to say something, when Squall continued to talk.

__

'Actually, I knew of this fact for awhile.' At this, Bahamut seemed surprised. _'It was before you found me……'_ Squall trailed of.

**__**

'Master, you don't need to go into this if it's about your past.'

Apparently, Squall did not hear Bahamut's opinion, as he continued on with his story. _'It was after the moon explosion. Somehow, I had teleported along with Dragoon to some distant planet; Dragoon's birth planet to be exact as I later found out. In no time at all, Dragoon had me his prisoner. One day, I had managed to escape my cell. Being tortured constantly was no way I wanted to live the rest of my life. I'm only eighteen. Anyway, as I was stealthily walking the corridors, I mistakenly overheard Dragoon talking to someone………someone who gave me great fear for some reason……more fear than Dragoon did.'_ Squall paused, taking a deep breath. _'Don't ask me why I felt this way, that someone could give me more of a reason to be afraid than Dragoon – again, it was a feeling. Anyway, as I said, I mistakenly overheard Dragoon tell this strange figure that in fact, he did not assimilate all of Rinoa's powers into his body and was one of the reasons why the powers weren't adjusting to his body correctly. He was missing some of them.'_

Again, Bahamut thought that his master was finished with his tale, but apparently, Squall was revealing everything, almost like he was in a trance, staring directly at Rinoa.

__

'I was caught shortly after. Apparently, Dragoon found out I overheard his secret.' Here, Bahamut witnessed Squall as he gulped down hard, still staring at Rinoa however. _'He gave me the ultimate punishment, something worse than death – an injection. I have…………**his** blood coursing through my veins.'_

Shock – the only word that could come close to describe what Bahamut was feeling. His master had always mentioned that he was connected to Dragoon somehow, but in this fashion, he had no idea. Suddenly, he became filled with rage. All he knew was that the next time he came across the fucking son of a bitch, all hell would be raised.

__

'I……I……' Squall was close to tears, and the crystalline droplets started to form under the brim of his eyes. _'I have some of those sorceress…………**sorcerer** powers now, to be exact, and it's eating me from the inside out – corrupting me in one sense. That's why I didn't want to come back; that's why I didn't want to reveal myself. I was afraid that I would end up hurting everyone I cared about. But in the end, I knew I had to come back. Knowing that you had remaining powers dormant within yourself, Dragoon would undoubtedly come here to take the rest, no doubt wanting to kill you as well; I **had** to come.'_

Now the guardian force became confused. Who was Squall actually talking to? He surely didn't have any sorcerer powers.

__

'Dragoon's blood is slowly taking over my body, and in no time, these powers, since he has control over them…………he'll have control over me.'

Bahamut was about to state that Squall had finally lost his mind when, through Squall's eyes, he saw Rinoa awaken. Smiling, he gave the two the privacy they never asked for.

Rinoa quickly started to shed tears as she stared Squall in the eyes. She had no idea what to say. For starters though, she too, knew for so long that she still had powers within herself, but refused to acknowledge their presence, desiring to be a normal young adult, like so many she envied across the world. But no, in the end, it didn't turn out to be that way at all. After all, once a sorceress, always a sorceress, with or without their powers. It was to that end that she unknowingly accepted the cruel fate she was destined to bear alone. 

But with the powers came one special gift. For some reason, Rinoa remembered sensing the same bond she could never become tired of – the bond to her knight. She knew of the bond……that it existed……she still felt it……and therefore could never accept the fact that Squall was believed to be dead during those three years he was not by her side. She still felt that bond.

However, that fact was not what she was worried about right now. At last, finally, when she thought she would forever be reunited with her knight……her love……her _gentle_ _storm_, once again life decided to take him away from her. _'NO!' _she fiercely said to herself._ 'Not this time. Not now…not ever!'_

"Squall………I had no idea." she said between her tears. This was much worse than she could ever imagine. She knew it would be bad – his past – but she soon found it was so much more than she expected it to be.

Her knight smiled forgivingly as he smoothed out her hair. "Well, now you know." he answered back, shedding a few himself.

"But…there has to be a way we can cure you Squall!" With newfound hope, she quickly rose from the bed to sit next to Squall. "There just **has** to be one!"

Shrugging hopelessly, Squall tried to change the subject. "It doesn't matter anymore. What matters is to res…………"

"Why don't we inject MY blood into your body too!? To combat Dragoon's! After all, I still have some powers left, right?"

Squall was totally surprised at the idea Rinoa conjured. He stared at his angel for awhile before returning to the recesses of his mind. He had strangely never considered the idea. Rinoa's blood within him – to combat Dragoon's. It was a huge long shot. With the blood of two different people – two _very_ different people to be exact– both with the power of sorcery coursing through in their blood – the battle between the two could very much destroy his body. Squall figured the final question went down to whether or not he could endure such a struggle, even at such a crucial time too, with Dragoon on the loose. But on the other hand, he would rather die than follow the commands of Dragoon. Sure, he had thought of suicide a lot, but whenever he came close to a positive decision, Rinoa would always appear in his mind, and that alone, was another reason to stay alive – to protect her.

Nodding slowly, Squall agreed with the idea. "Rinoa, it's a long shot, but it might just work. But we can't do it at the moment."

"Why not!?" she exclaimed incredulously. "We **need** to do this NOW. Don't think I'm letting you go Squall Leonhart. I did once, and it almost killed me. It's a mistake I'm never going to perform again. Right here, right now. Blood transfusion. Let's go!" And to prove she was not kidding around, Rinoa rolled up her sleeve and stuck her arm right in front of Squall's face.

Chuckling, Squall found himself becoming ever more optimistic about his chances to survive. Before, it was close to nil – now, after Rinoa – it was near the other end of the spectrum. "Rinoa, I would love to. But we don't have any of the tools, and if we do this transfusion right now, we both would be inactive for a while, leaving us easy prey for Dragoon. You would be tired from a loss of blood while my body would be adjusting to the new presence within myself. It's not a smart move."

Hearing the blunt truth for herself, Rinoa gradually agreed with Squall. It was pretty reckless of her to think they could do this right now, in the midst of all the tension surrounding them. She mentally smacked herself for being so childish. It seemed that despite the fact Squall was more open about his feelings than before, he still held onto a great amount of maturity and calmness – something Rinoa would have to obtain soon too, she figured. 

She nodded. "Kay. But what are we going to do in the meantime." For the first time, Rinoa looked around the hut. "Hey, where are Selphie and Quistis?"

"Not here." Squall simply stated.

Rinoa instantly became furious with the short answer. _'Not here!? That could mean anything! Absolutely **anything!'**_ "What the hell is that supposed to mean?" 

Sighing, Squall explained what had happened earlier, and how Quistis and Selphie chose to split up themselves. After he was done, Rinoa's expression did not change much.

"And you let them go!? WHY?!"

"Hey! It was two on one and plus, they were so adamant about it." Squall nervously stated, putting up his hands in defense. "And you can't say their wrong, because they're right. It was the only way we could find Irvine the fastest. And speaking of finding Irvine, **we** better start heading out ourselves."

Rinoa nodded. Thinking it through, her friends were right. If they were going to save Irvine, it would be better to cover more ground. And with less to a party, the less they could be seen. "Alright, but where are we going to head to?"

As the couple walked outside of their hut, they were met by a barren wasteland that contained no life whatsoever. Just as Squall felt his spirits were at a high, just seeing this land made him depressed as hell. "Around here. Selphie and Quistis went further on ahead."

Without much hesitation, Rinoa readied her projectile weapon, Shooting Star, and followed Squall into the neighboring hut across from the one they stayed in. Again, unbeknownst to Rinoa, Squall had not unsheathed his gun-blade. As both entered the hut, they found it to be a bit larger than the one they had rested at. For one thing, there was only one bed, besides two, more antiques on shelves here and there and other useless household products……at least for Shumi's that is.

"I wonder why the huts at the back end of the village weren't burned down as the ones in the front." Rinoa pondered out loud as she made sure she stayed no more than five feet away from Squall. 

"Who knows?"

Rinoa shrugged at the answer. She was about to call the search quits when something in the corner of her eye caught something. She would never have noticed it concealed in the darkness if not for the firefly that casually flew past it; a closet. _'Why in the world would a closet be doing in a hut?'_

Moving towards it, she found it already to be opened and even more surprising to her, found it only to contain a ladder, leading to what she could only fathom as an underground passage. Beckoning instantly for Squall, he came within the second and smiled. "Bingo."

Slowly, the two climbed down, Squall being the first one to check if the passage, or whatever the ladder gave away to, was safe. Confirming, he softly called Rinoa down. 

Once the couple was situated safely into the secret passage, Squall looked ahead. What light was apparent quickly died deeper into the passage. Looking at the walls, they were clearly underground, with walls made of dirt confirming that observation. 

"Guess we need some light, huh?" Rinoa stated as she muttered something that Squall had no clue what it meant. Sounded like an ancient language of some sort and he could only guess that Rinoa was muttering some type of spell. Soon enough, a small flame appeared in front of her. 

"That's a handy trick." 

"Yep. Now, shall we?" Rinoa asked.

Smiling, he led the way, with Rinoa instantly grabbing hold of Squall's hand. The flame moved as Rinoa did, always staying a few feet away from her to light up the way. However, they didn't have to go far when something much unexpected caught both Squall's and Rinoa's eyes on the floor. 

"A………toy flashlight?" Squall murmured as he picked it up. "What in the world would it be doing in a place like this?"

Rinoa shrugged as she took the toy and held it closer to the flame. For some reason, it clicked instantly in her mind. "It looks like the one Laguna bought Kari on our last trip to Esthar."

Squall smiled at the mention of his daughter. For some reason, he couldn't help but to think of her as the perfect little angel, just like her mother. When the rational part of his mind start to kick up again, it was strange. The inhabitants of Shumi Village were so advanced in the use of magic; they just could have used Fire to light up the way. And it was kind of hard to conceive a Shumi walking into an Esthar toy shop to buy a toy flashlight for their child. It was even harder to imagine one of Dragoon's monsters harboring such a thing. 

Like the sudden sound of a gunshot, Squall found that his next thought could very much make total sense. If Rinoa had likened the toy to one Kari owned…………it could very well mean one thing.

"Rinoa………" Squall breathed with much fear evident in his voice as he risked a glance to her. From what he saw, he knew Rinoa was thinking the same exact thing. 

"Kari………………no…"

-----*****-----

From the second he was thrown into the cell, he had constantly given the monster guards a headache. The stupid SeeD prisoner would **not **shutup! What made it worse, he didn't even seem scared of them, and didn't seem to tire from his constant barrage of yells and threats he made to them. The first prisoner surely didn't make this much noise. The first one just kept to his corner position in the cell with his head down, depressed as hell, like he had nothing else worth living for in life.

The monster finally had enough, "AAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHH!" he loudly roared, hoping to terrify the pants of the worthless human. And for a minute there, the monster thought he had succeeded when no sound came from him. Smiling, the monster regained his composure when the threats started to happen all over again.

"You just wait you fucking piece of shit till I get out of here. The first thing I will do you beat you so bad that it still be aching for years to come!"

__

'This human just won't shut up.' About to barge into the cell and break every single bone in his body, the monster stopped when he felt a powerful presence descending in the dungeon. Quickly regaining his self-control, the monster bowed down to his mistress.

Out of the corner of his eye, the monster noticed the worthless human becoming wide-eyed as the monster smelt immense fear starting to emanate from him. 

"Your……your……your supposed to be dead!" the human stammered out.

The monster only saw his mistress smile devilishly as he suddenly revealed a pathetic little human child in her arms. 

This seemed to get the human adult to shut up for the moment. And for once, the first prisoner had a reaction too, of shock, as he saw the little human child. "How…!?"

His mistress had a devilish smile upon her lips as she pretended to rock the child back and forth. She rubbed the human child's cheek ever so gently……almost too gently for the monster's liking, but that seemed to get more of a reaction from not only the annoying human, but the quiet one as well.

The monster's mistress eyed both humans piercingly before retreating with the human child in her arms. The monster had no clue what had just happened, but as long as the humans stayed quiet, he didn't care.

Both human prisoners, for the first time, truly felt terrified for the future. "Irvine……is…everything……she……going to be alright?" the monster heard one of the prisoners say, although the monster had no clue what it meant.

The other prisoner's reply, "I hope so Zell. For _their_ sake, I hope so."

****

Author's Notes: Heheheh……*looks around nervously.* 

Yep, let me start of my saying I'm terribly sorry for the very, very late update of Eternal Struggle II, but if you read my profile, you'd know that this school year, I just started college, and yeah, everything there has been very hectic. Gotta keep up with my studies if you know what I mean. Anyway, here is chapter 12.

As for notes about this chapter, it took me the greater part of winter break to actually remember where I wanted to go with this story, but finally knew what I wanted to do. This chapter reveals Squall's past - at least some of it and his mysterious connection with Dragoon. I hope that proved to be interesting. I already have some good stuff set up for the next chapter. But with updating that, eh, I don't know how fast exactly I'll be able to do that. If not before January 20th, then no earlier than mid March will I be able to update = spring break.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'll hope you leave your thoughts about it in a form of a **review**, ^_^.

Don't worry - this fic **will** be complete and Eternal Struggle III will still come. 

Until then,  
vindemon64


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